Subject Verb Agreement

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What is Subject-Verb Agreement?

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Subject-Verb Agreement is the grammatical rule that the subject and verb in a sentence must agree in number (singular or plural).

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When should you use a singular verb?

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Use a singular verb when the subject is singular (e.g., 'The cat runs').

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When should you use a plural verb?

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Use a plural verb when the subject is plural (e.g., 'The cats run').

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What is the rule for compound subjects joined by 'and'?

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When subjects are joined by 'and', they typically take a plural verb (e.g., 'Tom and Jerry are friends').

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What is the rule for compound subjects joined by 'or' or 'nor'?

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When subjects are joined by 'or' or 'nor', the verb agrees with the subject closest to it (e.g., 'Neither the teacher nor the students were ready').

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How does the presence of collective nouns affect verb agreement?

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Collective nouns can take either singular or plural verbs depending on whether the group acts as a single unit or as individuals (e.g., 'The team wins' vs. 'The team are arguing').

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What is an example of a subject that takes a singular verb despite being plural in form?

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Words like 'news' and 'mathematics' are singular and take singular verbs (e.g., 'The news is surprising').

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What is the rule for subjects that are indefinite pronouns?

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Indefinite pronouns like 'everyone', 'someone', and 'anybody' are singular and take singular verbs (e.g., 'Everyone is here').

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What is the subject-verb agreement rule for 'there is' and 'there are'?

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Use 'there is' for singular nouns and 'there are' for plural nouns (e.g., 'There is a book' vs. 'There are books').

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How do you determine the correct verb form with titles of books or movies?

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Titles of books, movies, or organizations are treated as singular (e.g., 'The Hunger Games is a popular series').