Questions tagged [subject-verb-agreement]
A singular subject requires a singular verb form, whereas a plural subject requires the plural verb form.
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"Where will She/Sara be tomorrow"? Or "Where will be She/Sara tomorrow"?
When we make "WH" questions, we can put the subject after the auxiliary verb, as in "Who will the President be?” or after the main verb “be,” as in "Who will be the President?”
My ...
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"Ten minutes is all it takes." — "Ten minutes" is plural, but "is" singular. What if we use "a few"?: "A few minutes is all it takes."
I know the rule that if "number + measure" is perceived as one whole, we use a singular verb.
Here are some examples [(1a-5a) are from the internet; (6a) is mine]:
(1a) Ten minutes is all it ...
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Another + compound subject + plural or singular verb?
I wanted to understand which of the following two is correct,
Let me know if another day and time works better for you.
or
Let me know if another day and time work better for you.
I found examples ...
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singular subject + plural verb + plural predicate nominative ("The only garbage ARE his supporters.")
Please help in our argument: is it good English to say: The only garbage ARE his supporters?
If yes, what would the explanation be?
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What are the rules for two or many verb subject-verb agreement?
During lunch, the teacher in the school grades papers or talks about plan for the weekend.
Subject is the teacher. Here verbs are grade and talk followed by or. So my question is: only the 1st verb ...
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Whatever decision he made, I would support it
Whatever decision he made, I would support it.
Is the sentence above conditional(subjunctive past) — "If he made any decision, I would support it."?
Or is the sentence in the past tense and ...
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Singular verb with money, distance and time
Where is that five pounds I lent you?
(NOT Where are those five pounds …?)
Twenty miles is a long way to walk.
When we talk about amounts and quantities we usually use singular determiners, verbs ...
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Language as we know it is a unique human property
Language as we know it is a unique human property.
'it' is an object of the verb 'know' or a subject?
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Subject verb agreement - I as well as he is/am the culprit
I have read that in case of 'as well as' the verb agrees with the first subject but putting an 'am' sounds weird. Is it correct or is there more to that rule?
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Using "it" to refer to "amounts of"
This is really huge amounts of money, but it is much less than we need. ( It appears on a workbook. I'm not sure if it's from a reliable source)
Questions:
Is there a grammatical error in this ...
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subject-verb agreement in the sentence of "there is another ten minutes of the game to go"
There’s still another ten minutes of the game to go, but for practical purposes it’s already over.
There is still another ten minutes of the game to go, but ~.
Is this sentence grammatically right?
...
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Which is the correct form to fill in the gap: "are / am / be / is"?
My friend, as well as I, _______ ready to accompany you in your company.
A) are
B) am
C) be
D) is
Could you explain me which answer correct is?
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Sub verb agreement
Father, mother and children (make/makes) a family.
Which verb should I use here, make or makes, as family is a collective noun in singular form?
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"It's both talent and hard work that are/is required." — Why is "are" incorrect? "Both talent and hard work" is plural and must agree only with "are"
proofreadnow.com:
If the subject consists of two or more words that are connected by "and" or by "both ... and", the subject is plural and requires a plural verb.
From this text, ...
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My back is not growing as I want / I want it to grow
In the book, Grammar in use 5th ed.
As = in the same way as, in the same condition as.
We use 'as' with subject (S) + verb (V):-
I didn’t move anything. I left everything as it was.
You should have ...
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Which is the subject here?
We know that subject of an Imperative Sentence (You) remains understood.
For example,
"Look at the cuckoo in that tree."
Here, subject of the intransitive verb 'Look' is "You", ...
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Every A and B - singular or plural
Every mother and father wants their child to succeed.
My grammar book and every other source I've found says wants is correct because a subject with every is always singular.
However, my English ...
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"I met the man whose car I had tinkered with" OR "I met the man whose car had been tinkered with by me"
I met the man whose car I had tinkered with.
I met the man whose car had been tinkered with by me.
which is the correct sentence?
can we use another subject for the subject of a relative clause? ->...
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Someone calls or someone call
I read that someone is used with singular verb but l come across with this example :
Someone call an ambulance.
Is it correct? It shouldn't be "someone calls an ambulance"?!
Or in another ...
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"What are their values?" what is the subject in sentences like this?
A few hours ago, a kid asked me the subject of a sentence, which was "Linda makes black forest cake", and I answered 'Linda' by explaining 'Who makes the cake' 'the doer' of that action (...
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"As + Sub + Verb"
As = in the same way as, in the same condition as.
We use as with subject (S) + verb (V):
I didn’t move anything. I left everything as it was.
You should have done it as I showed you.
do we leave ...
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"This might occur when a male and female horse see each other." — Why is it correct to use the singular "horse" with the plural "see" here?
an excerpt from the book "Walking the Way of the Horse", page 111:
... horses can use their front legs and hooves to strike at other horses. This might occur when two horses meet for the ...
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"There is" or "there are" with compound subjects that have a mix of plural and singular elements [duplicate]
There is a cat, a dog, and an elephant in the room.
There are two cats, a dog, and an elephant in the room.
There is a cat, two dogs, and an elephant in the room.
In the first sentence, all of these ...
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Many a girl... have or has?
Many a girl in this class _____ got high scores in English.
Saw this on elsewhere. To me it seems the blank can be "have" but not "has".
All choices:
is
are
has
have
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Is the plural verb "were" correct considering the supplement?
That book — and this one — were particularly intriguing to me, someone who has known the family for years.
Source:- https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/donald-antrims-one-friday-in-...
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"All the four types of meat consumption is" [closed]
In an IELTS essay where I need to analyze the trends in this chart, I wrote:
In the future (this test was given in 2007 I wanted to act like a test taker at the time), all the four types of meat ...
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Using a singular or agreement with "audience"
it's
our audience are children and adults
our audience is children and adults
our audiences are children and adults
I am kind of confused
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Why does Grammarly say the verb 'were' is incorrect in 'There were a prince and a princess'?
There was a prince and a princess
There were a prince and a princess
Why does Grammarly show 'were' as an error here? A prince + a princess = 2 people
Correct subject-verb agreement
There were ...
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Bus or Buses in Subject-Verb Agreement
I've written the following sentence but am unsure if the subject-verb agreement is correct. I'm uncertain if the second "bus" should be plural. It doesn't sound right but I think the rule is ...
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collective nouns subject verb agreement
Which of the following is correct?
The committee debates these questions carefully.
or
The committee debate these questions carefully.
I am confused on when to use plural form of the verb with ...
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Verbs in plural after a singular noun [duplicate]
These are some sentences I found in some academic books I was reading:
A small white blob is reflected there, precisely where Beth’s
camera-flash left behind proof of her presence as if the daughter
...
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Questions about verbs
70% (700) of the total data is used as training data, and the remaining 20% (200) are used as validation data.
I am in the process of creating presentation PPT materials.
Is are used as correct in ...
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Two cats and one dog (were/was)
Consider the following sentence:
Two cats and one dog (were/was) sitting on the fence
Logically I would think the correct word to use here is "were" considering that we are talking about a ...
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Noun and verb after "either one or all": singular or plural?
I think it is grammatical to say
"Almost every day, either this table or that one is reserved."
What about the following sentence?
"Almost every day, either one or all tables are ...
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What form of the verb is used with a subject like "little me"?
I want to say that I look innocent in an old picture of mine and I don't know if I should say:
"Little me looks so innocent"; or
"Little me look so innocent" (without an "s&...
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Some questions about notional agreement
I learned from some resources that notional agreement is not a rigid rule but rather a matter of preference. But they also suggest that there are times when notional agreement works better, and the ...
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Which is the correct subject verb agreement in "The majority of the class was/were"? [duplicate]
"The majority of the class was having problems with simple subject-verb agreement problems..."
Correction: "The majority of the class were having problems with simple subject-verb ...
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"What Has" or "What Have," and Why?
Which of the following is correct (and, most importantly, why)?
A glimmer of light after what have been long weeks of darkness.
A glimmer of light after what has been long weeks of darkness.
(The ...
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What kind of verb should be used after 'A century of + a plural noun'
In the following sentence, which verb is right?
A century of discoveries in genetics ( has / have ) unlocked the
secrets of our DNA.
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subject-verb agreement When two singular words are joined by not only . . . but also
When neither… nor… or either… or… are used with two singular nouns, the verb can be singular or plural. A plural verb is more informal.From Oxford Learner's Dictionaries
I wonder if When not only . . ...
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Singular noun is something and something?
I get stuck by the following sentence from this article: Noam Chomsky: The False Promise of ChatGPT.
The crux of machine learning is description and prediction; it does not posit any causal ...
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Which one is correct
"How many days has it been since I purchased the subscription" or "How many days have it been since I purchased the subscription".
My limited knowledge says me "has it been&...
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Subject-verb agreement of singular-plural
Top of mind on Capitol Hill as lawmakers return from recess this week are the annual spending bills to keep the government open, which must be enacted by the time the new fiscal year starts on Oct. 1. ...
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Should I use CONTAINS or CONTAIN?
An example of a miniature Sudoku puzzle is:
Notice that it consists of four rows, four columns, and four 2 x 2 boxes.
I was thinking of using the following wording for the instructions:
Fill each ...
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Agreement of a verb with its subject when another noun phrase appears between them [closed]
I failed this question in a test but I don't think I was wrong.
Instruction: Choose the correct vèrb from the pair in parenthesis.
knowledge of different cultures (helps/help) to survive in a global ...
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Is the sentence in the post correct?
"We were intelligent enough to know that a sample size of one does not a conclusion make" ?
Is the sentence above correct as per the grammatical rules of English ? If yes then what set of ...
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Is "some of the fruit" plural or singular in this case?
Is "some of the fruit" plural or singular?
We are familiar with the verse from the bible "She took some of the fruit and ate it.". Here "some of" refers to a piece of a ...
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'how reasoning and acting more human-like works' [duplicate]
This is from one of "for dummies series".
Our current daily data production is estimated to amount to about 2.5
quintillion (a number with 18 zeros) bytes, with the lion’s share
going to ...
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Subject-verb number agreement relating to "services"
I understand the subject-verb number agreement rule but had a hard time locating answers relating to types of and use of the word "services." I assume that you don't use plural types if ...
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