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English
So what is subject-verb agreement? Put simply, it’s a basic grammar rule which states that a singular subject takes a singular verb and a plural subject takes a plural verb.
While this is an easy rule to get right in simple cases, there are in fact many specific rules you need to learn in order to use subject-verb agreement correctly in your writing. Many of these are not intuitive, so you need to learn them!
Basic rule
(i) Determine whether the subject is singular or plural
(ii) Then, identify the singular or plural verb (hint: which verb form would you use with ‘he’ or ‘they’?)
Examples
Singular: The scientist is very busy today.
Plural: The scientists are very busy today.
Example of a specific rule
Use a singular verb when the subject of the sentence is a period of time or sum of money.
Examples
Time:
Five minutes is all it takes to answer the questions.
Money:
Five million yen is available to fund overseas study for one year.
Read on to learn more about subject-verb agreement, or jump straight to testing your knowledge on our short quizzes.
Here we will present a series of lessons on the specific rules you must learn to use subject-verb agreement correctly – they may surprise you!
Rule 1
Use a singular verb when the subject of the sentence refers to a unit of measurement.
Examples
Six feet four inches is tall for a man.
Twenty microliters of blood is a suitable amount to use.
Five kilos is the maximum weight for hand luggage.
Five meters was too far for the patient to walk unassisted.
Rule 2
Use a singular verb when the subject of the sentence refers to a period of time or sum of money.
Examples
Time:
Eight weeks is needed for treatment.
Five minutes is all it takes to answer the questions.
Money:
Fifty dollars is very expensive for a test tube rack.
Five million yen was available last year to fund overseas study.
Rule 3
Use a singular verb with the expression “the number”.
Use a plural verb with the expression “a number”.
Examples
The number of patients is increasing year-on-year.
The number of reports available is limited.
The number of patients attending regular follow up has fallen this month.
A number of machines are calibrated on the same day.
A number of grants have been approved.
A number of new text books are available from the library.
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