Subject-verb agreement

Subject-verb agreement questions are very common on the ACT. Knowing the rules for this question type will pay off every time you take it.

Subject-verb agreement means the form of the verb depends on the subject - specifically, whether the subject is singular or plural.

If that feels like a mouthful, remember this:

Correct subject-verb agreement requires you to change the way a verb is written based on whether a subject is singular or plural.

Example

Let’s start with a basic example:

The chef work/works tirelessly at his chosen craft.

First, find the subject so you can match the verb to it. Subjects and verbs come as a pair:

• The subject is the noun that performs the action.
• The verb is the action the subject performs.

In this sentence, who is doing the action work?

It’s the chef, so chef is the subject. Now choose the verb form that matches a singular subject:

• a chef works (singular)
• chefs work (plural)

So the correct sentence is:

The chef works tirelessly at his chosen craft.

How the English ACT makes subject-verb agreement difficult

That’s the basic principle, but the ACT usually won’t keep it that simple.

Instead, it often places a long modifier - like a prepositional phrase (see the Parts of Speech chapter) or an entire clause - between the subject and the verb. To make it even trickier, the noun closest to the verb is often the opposite number from the real subject (a singular subject with a plural noun nearby, or vice versa).

That’s why you shouldn’t rely on what “sounds right” on ACT English. Use the rule: identify the subject, match the verb, and move on.

Example

Now look at a more ACT-style version:

The chef that was educated at Kendall College in Chicago along with many other award-winning culinary artists work tirelessly at the craft.

This is the same core sentence as before, but with a long distracting clause added.

If you go by what “sounds right,” you might think work is correct because the closest noun to the verb is artists, and we do say artists work.

But the closest noun to the verb is not necessarily the subject. The subject is still chef. The clause “that was educated at Kendall College in Chicago along with many other award-winning culinary artists” is just a modifier.

A good strategy is to remove the modifier and see what’s left:

The chef work tirelessly at the craft.

Now it’s clear the verb should be singular:

The chef works tirelessly at the craft.

Sometimes the hardest part is noticing that the question is testing subject-verb agreement at all. A common clue is that two answer choices look almost identical, but one verb ends in -s and the other doesn’t.

Follow these steps when you encounter subject-verb questions:

1. Identify the verb
2. Ask yourself “Who or what did this action?” to find the actual subject (remember to remove any prepositional phrases (see the chapter on Parts of Speech), since objects of the preposition can sometimes masquerade as subjects - but they aren’t!
3. See which form of the verb you need to match the subject.

Example

Here’s one more example, in a format that’s very similar to what you’ll see on the ACT:

Each of the people in the various represented countries have gathered their own set of data.

A. NO CHANGE
B. Each of the people in the various represented countries has
C. Each of the people, in the various represented countries have
D. Each of the people in the various, represented countries has

Notice that the biggest differences among the answer choices are:

• commas
• has vs. have

That’s a strong sign this is (at least partly) a subject-verb agreement question.

Now apply the process.

Step 1: Identify the verb. The main verb is gathered, and has/have is part of the verb phrase (see the Parts of Speech chapter). So the verb is has/have gathered.

Step 2: Find the actual subject. Who or what did the gathering?

At first glance, several nouns appear:

• Each
• people
• countries

Now remove the prepositional phrases:

• of the people
• in the various represented countries

Once you remove those, the subject left is Each. So the subject-verb set is Each has/have gathered.

Step 3: Match the verb to the subject. Would you say Each have or Each has?

Each is singular, so you need the singular verb form has.

The commas are just distractions here.

So, based on what you know, see if you can find the answer.

Each of the people in the various represented countries have gathered their own set of data.

A. NO CHANGE
B. Each of the people in the various represented countries has
C. Each of the people, in the various represented countries have
D. Each of the people in the various, represented countries has

Which answer is correct?

Collective nouns and pronouns

Remember that collective nouns and pronouns - words that represent a group - are always treated as singular. Examples include group, team, jury, crowd, and similar words.

For example:

• “The crowd was getting excited about the close score at the end of the half”
• NOT “The crowd were getting excited about the close score at the end of the half.”

Key points

Follow these steps when you encounter subject-verb questions:

1. Identify the verb
2. Ask yourself “Who or what did this verb?” to find the actual subject. Remember to remove any prepositional phrases (see the chapter on Parts of speech), since objects of the preposition can sometimes masquerade as subjects - but they aren’t!
3. See which form of the verb you need to match the subject.