Subject-verb agreement, also known as subject-verb concord, is a grammatical concept that dictates that the subject and verb in a sentence must agree in number and person. This means that if the subject is singular, the verb should be singular, and if the subject is plural, the verb should be plural. Ensuring this agreement is essential for constructing grammatically correct and coherent sentences. Some basic rules include using singular verbs with singular subjects and plural verbs with plural subjects, being attentive to special cases and exceptions, and maintaining consistency in complex sentences.
Rules Of Concord
1)The verb and subject must agree in number (singular and plural).
This means that the subject which is usually a noun but agree with the verb that is referring to it in a particular sentence.
The basic rule is simple, singular verb singular subject.
Examples
2) Subject-verb agreement remains unchanged by words or phrases positioned between the subject and the verb, whether singular or plural.
Examples
In the second example, "The bouquet of red roses smells so sweet," the subject is "bouquet," not "roses." "Bouquet" is a singular noun, so the verb "smells" agrees with the singular subject "bouquet." Even though there are multiple "red roses" within the bouquet, the verb follows the subject "bouquet," which is singular.
3) When subjects are connected by "and," a plural verb is used. When linked by "either/or" or "neither/nor," a singular verb is employed.
Examples
1. "Radha and Meera are coming home."
In this sentence, "Radha and Meera" are two subjects joined by "and." When subjects are connected by "and," a plural verb "are" is used because both Radha and Meera are coming home, making the subject plural.
2. "Neither Akshay nor Rohit is coming home."
Here, "Neither Akshay nor Rohit" are two subjects connected by "nor." When subjects are linked by "neither/nor," a singular verb "is" is used. In this case, it means that neither Akshay nor Rohit is coming home.
3. "My dad or my mom is arriving today."
In this sentence, "My dad or my mom" are two subjects connected by "or." When subjects are linked by "either/or," you use a singular verb "is." This means that either my dad or my mom is arriving today, and it's treated as a singular subject.
4)In a sentence with "or," "either/or," or "neither/nor," the verb matches the noun or pronoun closest to it.
It is self explanatory.
5) Anytime u see a sentence that contains 'as well as' 'along with' 'besides' ignore them as the verb used in that sentence "must" be singular example below.
Examples
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