GUM Notes Subject/ Verb Agreement

English 9

Correct the following sentence:

(BELLRINGER)With both the house and

senate at a stalemate, the president have to pass the

bill with no support.

Subject/ VerbAgreement

6 Rules of SVA

Please put the following notes in GUM of your binder.

Rule #1:With a simple subject (one word subject), the subject

should agree in both number and tense. Ex: Basketballs roll

across the floor.

Rule #2:Compound Subjects (two

subjects in the same sentence) usually take a

plural verb. Ex: Sugar and flour are

needed for cookies.

Rule #2 EXCEPTIONS:IF the compound subject is

treated as a singular in popular usage or the two subjects refer to the same

thing or person. EX: Corned beef and cabbage is a traditional Irish meal.

The producer and creator is arriving at 2:00.

Rule #2 MORE EXCEPTIONS:When using “or”/ “nor”, the

subject agrees with the CLOSEST verb.

EX: My mom or dad is coming to my game.

My mom or sisters are coming to my game.

Rule #3:Singular Indefinite Pronouns

(singular pronouns that don’t refer to anyone or anything in

particular) the verb is singular. EX: Everybody gets a trophy.

Something is creepy in that house.

Nothing is good about broccoli.

Rule #4:Plural Indefinite Pronouns get

a plural verb.EX: Both are qualified for the

job. Many went to the football

game.Few know the score at the

buzzer.

Rule #5:Collective Nouns (nouns that

refer to a group) can be singular or plural. You have to

look at the rest of the sentence.

EX: The team has practice after school.

The staff have gone their separate ways.

Rule #6:Inverted subjects, when the

subject appears AFTER the verb. Usually in a question, but NOT

always. EX: How is mom going to drive

without a license?Over the rainbow flies a bird.

There are seven clean plates in the cupboard.

There is hair in my lasagna.

So then why is it so tough??

Because finding the subject and the verb can get tricky. Writing

often fills the subject with prepositional phrases or inverts

the subject, making it super hard to figure out just what the subject

and verb are in the sentence!!

Let’s look back at that first sentence:

With both the house and senate at a stalemate, the

president have to pass the bill with no support.

Turn to your neighbor and share what rule you think this

follows. (30 seconds)

“With both the house and senate at a stalemate” is the preposition and NOT the subject. But it looks

like a compound subject. Geez!! Tricky!!

So it’s Rule #1. Simple subject. Singular subject

and singular verb.