Subject-Verb Agreement

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No matter the style of your writing, you need to have perfect English grammar to make the right impression.  One important English grammar rule is subject verb agreement in sentences.  This is connected to the bigger verbs picture, but in this English lesson, we'll focus on subject verb agreement definition and subject verb agreement examples.

The first thing to know for this lesson is that every proper sentence in English writing contains a subject and a verb.  The subject is what or who the sentence is about, and the verb (which is contained in the predicate) tells about the subject or what the subject does or did.  Once you have both of these elements, you must make sure the subject and verb agree for person and number.  Person can be 1st (I/we), 2nd (you), or 3rd (she/he/it), and number will be singular (I/you/she/he/it) or plural (we/you/they).

Here is the verb "to laugh" matched up with all possibilities for person and number:
Singular
1st person: I laugh, am laughing, was laughing, do laugh, did laugh, etc.
2nd person: you laugh, are laughing, were laughing, do laugh, did laugh, etc.
3rd person: he/she/it laughs, is laughing, was laughing, does laugh, did laugh, etc.

Plural:
1st person: we laugh, are laughing, were laughing, do laugh, did laugh, etc.
2nd person: you laugh, are laughing, were laughing, do laugh, did laugh, etc.
3rd person: they laugh, are laughing, were laughing, do laugh, did laugh, etc.

Look at the following information to learn more about this topic, and to avoid subject verb agreement errors in your writing.

Verbs with Collective Nouns
A collective noun (one word that refers to more than one person or thing as one unit) is usually followed by a singular verb: the family goes on vacation to Alaska every August; the class had learned about flowers 17 times.  If the individual members of the unit are not acting together, though, the noun takes a plural verb: the flock are flying in all different directions.

Verbs with Compound Subjects Joined by And
Compound subjects (when more than one subject go with only one verb) are considered plural when �and� joins them: the frog and the horse are going to the movies.
Verbs with Compound Subjects Joined by Or
Compound subjects joined by �or� require the verb to match the subject that follows �or�: the mother or the children are going to love the new water park; either the zebra or the monkeys were playing with the elephant at the zoo.

Now you have an overview of this topic thanks to our subject verb agreement lesson.  Remember to match your verbs � including �to do� and �to be� � for person and number, whenever you write.  That means writing that �they don�t like ice cream� and �I am here� instead of �they doesn�t like ice cream� and �I is here.�  When you have large volumes of writing to complete, though, it�s easy to miss such errors.  That�s exactly where WhiteSmoke comes in handy.

This smart writing tool scans your text with a single click of your mouse.  From any program you are working in, you can send your English writing to WhiteSmoke�s artificial intelligence server.  The Natural Language Processing technology will read your text and pick out mistakes, then suggest ways to fix the errors.  Here is an example of what WhiteSmoke can do to fix subject verb agreement errors in your writing:

Before WhiteSmoke: He don�t want to go, so let�s goes out another day.
After WhiteSmoke:  He doesn't want to go, so let's go out another day.

So when you�re afraid your writing won�t pass the subject verb agreement test, trust WhiteSmoke innovative writing software to help.  Check your verbs and English grammar instantly.  And don�t forget to proofread thoroughly with WhiteSmoke�s spell check and punctuation check.  After all of the basics are covered, enhance your writing with the revolutionary enrichment feature that suggestions synonyms from its online dictionary and thesaurus.  Improve your writing now with WhiteSmoke, the comprehensive writing solution.