Summary
When a singular subject is paired with a plural verb, or vice versa, we have ourselves a subject-verb disagreement error. These types of writing errors are clearer when illustrated:
We was tired
She don’t speak
What does it do to my writing?
Subject-verb disagreements, such as the ones above, are pretty obvious cases. These have become a part of certain dialects, representative of spoken, informal English. Formal writing, however, sees these disagreements as errors, and in keeping to its conventions, we engage well in academic and professional conversation (both verbal and written). Having these subject-verb disagreements in your writing calls into question your command of standard English grammar, which can reflect poorly on you in professional and academic contexts.
While a sort of obvious subject-verb disagreement error is good to have in mind, many students make errors that are more subtle:
Participating in the panel today is Dr. Warner and Dr. Nader.
The scholarships given out by the foundation enables students from lower income families to attend college.
These subtler subject-verb agreement errors are errors because the grammatical subject and the grammatical verb do not correlate with one another. This can lead to syntactical and sometime logical confusion. In the above examples, Dr. Warner and Dr. Nader are two people, not one. Similarly, the scholarships that the foundation provides enable the students to attend college, not the foundation itself.
How do I find and fix problems with subject-verb agreement in my writing?
Quick Find: Check if your subject and verb match in number (if the subject is singular, so should the verb be singular, if the subject is plural, so should the verb be plural)
Quick Fix: Change your verb or subject to match in number. If there are two subject joined with 'and' the verb should be plural, but if two subjects are joined by 'either-or', 'neither-nor', 'or', the verb should be singular or plural depending on the subject it is closer to. For phrases that add information with 'as well as', 'in addition to', the verb should only match the number of the main subject, ignoring these phrases.
The best way to find subject-verb agreement errors is to find your subject and verb and see if they agree in number (singular verbs for singular subjects, plural verbs for plural subjects). It is useful to be aware of this while writing so that you do not end up with having to meticulously go over your sentences looking for these errors. The tricky part of subject-verb agreement comes when you are dealing with compound subjects, when there is more than one subject sharing the verb, joined by a conjunction such as ‘and’, or correlatives like ‘both-and’, ‘either-or’, ‘neither-nor’, etc.
For ‘and’ and ‘both-and’, the subject is always plural.
Both Ian and Kurt are joining the band.
For ‘or’, ‘either-or’, and ‘neither-nor’, the verb agrees with the subject it is closer to. Sometimes the sentence may seem awkward or incorrect, but you can always switch up the place of the subjects.
Neither the peasants nor the nobleman was paying any attention to the ranting prophet.
Neither the nobleman nor the peasants were paying any attention to the ranting prophet.
Do the faculty or the dean decide this issue?
Does the dean or the faculty decide this issue?
Sometimes, there is no need to think of which verb number to use if both subjects in the pair are similar.
Either Allen or Ambrose has to take that place.
Another way that subject verb disagreement can be potentially confusing is in inserting phrases starting with ‘in addition’, ‘as well as’, ‘along with’, etc. For these, it is important to remember that such phrases are not a part of the subject (they can usually be eliminated from the sentence, not unlike the words in parenthesis). Therefore, since they are not a part of the subject, they have no effect on the verb whatsoever.
The dog, along with its brother, needs to take a bath.
Gloria, as well as Philip, works at the dining hall.
