Have you ever noticed that words change their endings depending on who is doing the action? In English, verbs (‘doing’ words) have to match the subject (the person or thing doing the action). We call this Subject-Verb Agreement. It’s like a secret code: if the subject is singular, the verb needs one ending, but if it’s plural, it needs another.

The “S” Swap Rule

The easiest way to remember how this works is the “S” Swap.

• Singular Subjects usually do not have an “s” at the end (like dog, girl, or apple). Because the subject is missing an “s,” the verb usually grabs one!

  • Example: The dog barks.

• Plural Subjects usually do have an “s” at the end (like dogs, girls, or apples). Since the subject already has an “s,” the verb stays plain and drops the “s.”

  • Example: The dogs bark.

Think of it like a seesaw. If the “s” is on the left side (the subject), it shouldn’t be on the right side (the verb).

I and You

Even though “I” and “You” are just one person, they are the rebels of the grammar world. They follow the plural rules.

• You don’t say, “I walks to school.” You say, “I walk.”

• You don’t say, “You eats pizza.” You say, “You eat.”

Watch Out for “Hidden” Plurals

Sometimes, a noun doesn’t end in “s,” but it’s still a plural, eg children. In addition, collective nouns like team, family, or class stand for a group.

In British English, they can be treated as either singular or plural depending on the context. (This flexibility is a key difference from American English, which almost always treats collective nouns as singular.)

How to Decide Which to Use

The choice usually depends on whether you are thinking of the group as a single unit or as individual members.

• Use singular (is/has) when referring to the team as a single, unified entity, eg “The team is the best in the league” or “A team of inspectors is visiting the island”.
• Use plural (are/have) when referring to the individual members or their actions, eg “The team are celebrating their win” or “The team are in disagreement about the strategy”.

Common Usages

Sports: In British sports reporting, it is extremely common (and often standard) to use plural verbs with team names, even if the name itself is singular, eg “Manchester United are playing tonight” or “England were playing poorly”.
Other Collective Nouns: This same “notional agreement” applies to other words like family, government, staff, and committee.
Safe Option: If you are unsure, using the singular is rarely considered “wrong” in British English, but using the plural can sound more natural.

Finding the Subject

Sometimes, it’s not easy to find the subject that agrees with the verb. This often happens when several other words are written afterwards, eg “The voice of the people is important.” The last word before the verb here is ‘people’, a plural noun, but the verb ‘is’ takes the singular form because it agrees with the original subject, ‘voice’.

Nouns and Pronouns Must Agree

One of the problems with the English language is that people have started objecting to using ‘he’ to mean ‘he or she’ as they think it sounds sexist. As a result, many now use the pronoun ‘they’ to refer to words like ‘anybody’ or ‘everybody’. Unfortunately, that makes no grammatical sense because ‘they’ is plural and ‘anybody’ and ‘everybody’ are both singular.

A much better solution is to use the plural throughout. Instead of saying ‘everybody agrees they’re happier in the sunshine’, you can say ‘People all agree they’re happier in the sunshine’.

More Than one Person Must Have More Than one Thing

Another area where agreement is needed is in possessions or relationships. If you’re talking about more than one person, then whatever they own and whomever they know must be in the plural. For example, you can only say ‘pupils must write to their teacher’ if they’re in the same class with the same individual teacher. If you’re talking about all pupils in the country, you have to say ‘pupils must write to their teachers‘.

Tricky “And” vs “Or”

What happens when you have two subjects?

1. Using “And”: If you use “and,” you are making a plural group.

   • Example: “Tim and Moby run fast.” (Two people = plural verb).

2. Using “Or”: If you use “or,” you are only talking about one of them at a time.

   • Example: “Tim or Moby runs fast.” (Only one of them is running, so we use the singular verb).

Why Does It Matter?

Using the right verb ending makes your writing and speaking clear. It helps your listener understand exactly how many people are doing the action. If you say, “The cats jumps,” it makes no sense!

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