Subjects and Verbs and How They “Agree.”
How Subjects and Verbs Agree.
We know that a sentence needs a verb and a noun (or pronoun) to be complete. Nouns or pronouns that perform the action of the verb are called the subject of the sentence. The subject of the sentence is the “doer” of the action.
The main rule about subject-verb agreement is this: the verb must always agree with the subject in number. So, a singular subject needs a singular verb, and a plural subject needs a plural verb.
In the sentence “Dogs eat,” the verb, eat, is in the correct plural form according to the subject, dogs. So, we can say that the subject and the verb “agree.” Let’s look at an example where the subject and verb do not agree:
Dogs eats.
In this example, the singular verb, eats, is not correct because the subject, dogs, is plural. However, if we made the subject singular, eats would be the correct form of the verb. See below:
The dog eats.
Remember, the subject and verb in a sentence must always agree in number.
Practice Problems
What is the correct verb to complete the sentence below? Are, or is?
There ___ mice in this house.
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