Subject/verb agreement

There are some special rules about subject-verb agreement that you should be familiar with:

A sentence with two subjects joined by and takes a plural verb. E.g.:The chemistry lab and the physics lab are . . .

Some words end in -s but are singular in form. Many of these words are the names of fields of study {economics, physics, etc). News is another word of this kind. E.g.:

Economics is . . . The news was . . .

When a clause begins with the expletive there, the verb may be singular or plural, depending on the grammatical subject.

Subjects with each and every take singular verbs. (This includes compound words like everyone and everything.) E.g.:

Each state has . . .

Each of the representatives was . . .

Every person was . . .

Everyone wants . . .

The verb in relative clauses depends on the noun that the relative pronoun refers to. E.g.:

The house that was built . . .

The students who were selected . . .

The phrase the number of + plural noun takes a singular verb. The phrase a number of + plural noun takes a plural verb. E.g.:

The number of trees is . . .

A number of important matters have . . .

Singular subjects used with phrases such as along with, accompanied by, together with, as well as, and in addition to take singular verbs. E.g.:

The mayor, along with the city council, is . . .

Together with his friends, Mark has . . .

Quantities of time, money, distance, and so on usually take a singular verb. E.g.:

Five hundred dollars was . . .

Two years has . . .

Ten miles is . . .

Problems involving subject-verb agreement.Underline the form that correctly completes each sentence. Then circle the subject with which the underlined verb agrees. The first one is done as an example.

The first bridge to be built with electric lights (was/were) the Brooklyn Bridge. .

Ethics (is/are) the study of moral duties, principles, and values.

There (is/are) two types of calculus, differential and integral.

George Gershwin, together with his brother Ira, (was/were) the creator of the first musical comedy to win a Pulitzer Prize.

In a chess game, the player with the white pieces always (moves/move) first.

The Earth and Pluto (is/are) the only two planets believed to have a single moon.

A number of special conditions (is/are) necessary for the formation of a lingua franca.

Each of the Ice Ages (was/were) more than a million years long.

The national language, along with regional and minority languages, (makes/make) up the linguistic situation in a country.

A lingua franca may be any natural or any artificial language which (is/are) used among speakers of different mother tongues.

Sheep (is/are) covered with thick fur.

The more-or-less rhythmic succession of economic booms and busts (is/are) referred to as the business cycle.

The number of migrants in developed countries (depends/depend) on its economic conditions.

All trees, except for the tree fern, (is/are) seed-bearing plants.

Fifteen hundred dollars a year (was/were) the per capita income in the United States in 1950.

Everyone who (goes/go) into the woods should recognize common poisonous plants such as poison ivy and poison oak.

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