Grammar Basics. Part III. Subject-Verb Agreement and Other Writing Mishaps

Introduction

One of the most prevalent problems in the United States with regard to writing is the issue of subject-verb agreement (Good, 2002), also known as subject-predicate agreement. Briefly put, "A predicate must agree in person and in number with its subject, regardless of other elements in a sentence." (Eggenschweiler and Biggs, 2001) This means that the subject and verb of each sentence need to match in number.

This lesson will examine the common errors made with regard to subject-verb agreement, as well as a number of other common and troublesome writing errors.

Common Subject-Verb Disagreements

Contractions are a prevalent area in which writers often use the wrong verb number--most usually because the entire verb is not written out. Here are the more common subject-verb problems found in contractions.

Incorrect use of "there's." This is a contraction for "there is." Examples of misuse include, "There's several coats in the corner." "There's been a lot of break-ins around here lately." or "There's lots of guys who want to play professional sports." What these sentences should use is "there are" or "there have been." "There are several coats...," "There have been a lot of break ins...," or "There are lots of guys..."

Incorrect use of "here's." This error is almost as easy to commit as "there's." It is a contraction is for "here is." Examples of misuse, "Here's some more papers to file," "Here's the boxes." or "Here's bunches of grammatical rules." To be correct, the sentences need to have plural verbs, "Here are some more papers...," "Here are the boxes," or "Here are bunches..."

Where there is more than one subject or the subjects are connected by the conjunction "or," the subject closer to the verb determines whether the verb is singular or plural. For example, "Either Jimmy or the teachers are right." This is true, even though one of the subjects (that is, "Jimmy") is singular. The subject "teachers" is closest to the verb of the sentence and determines that the verb will be plural. Another example would be, "Is my brother or sisters going to town with me today?" Again, the verb is singular (even though it might sound a bit odd) because it is nearer the subject "brother."

Three ironclad rules for good subject-verb agreement are as follows. "(1) If the grammatical subject of a sentence is singular, it takes a singular verb; (2) if the grammatical subject is plural, it takes a plural verb; and (3) the grammatical subject, not some other word, always determines the number of the verb." (Good, 2002) A good technique for double-checking these constructions is to dissemble the contraction and see if the sentence still sounds right. For example, instead of writing "there's," write, "there is."