Grammar Tips from Prompt Proofing: Be Sure to Agree

This month, Prompt Proofing looks at subject-verb agreement.

2013-05-03

VANCOUVER, BC, May 03, 2013 (Press-News.org) Subject/verb agreement may seem really obvious but there are some sentences where it can be less clear. We all know that plural nouns take a plural verb and singular nouns take a singular verb - so far, so good. Additionally, there are collective nouns such as team, group, army, etc. that take a singular verb even though the noun in question may include many people. For example:

The team works well together and has achieved its goals.

(Remember the pronoun also has to agree, therefore it is 'its goals', not 'their goals'!)

It gets a little more complicated when you have a compound subject where one is singular and one is plural. In this case, the rule is that the verb agrees with the subject that is closer to it.

Therefore:

Either my husband or my brothers come with me when I have to carry heavy bags home from the store. But:

Either my brothers or my husband comes with me.

Also - some words that appear to be plural are treated as singular (just to further confuse things). Take 'dollars' or 'months' for example:

We say 'American dollars are accepted almost everywhere.' But:

'A thousand dollars is a lot of money to lose.'

In this case, 'a thousand dollars' refers to a specific sum of money, so it takes a singular verb.

Similarly:

'There are twelve months in a year.' But:

'Three months is a long time to wait for an appointment.'

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Grammar Tips from Prompt Proofing: Be Sure to Agree

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