IT’S ALL ABOUT THE TYPES OF PROBLEM SUBJECT AND VERB AGREEMENT

The subject and verb must agree in number: both must be singular, or both must be plural.

Basic Principle: Singular subjects need singular verbs; plural subjects need plural verbs.        My mother is a nutritionist. My brothers are mathematicians.

IT’S ALL ABOUT THE TYPES OF PROBLEM SUBJECT AND VERB AGREEMENT

Subject-Verb Agreement

Ø  Anyone, everyone, someone, no one, nobody feel plural to some writers, but they are always singular-and take a singular verb.

SUBJECT AND VERB AGREEMENT">

             Ex : Everyone has a laptop in the class
                    Someone has done his or her homework.

Ø  When an expletive constructions (there is, there are, here is, etc). Begins a  sentence the subject (which determines the number of the verb) comes after the verb.

             Ex:  The are several explanations for the civil war.

Ø  With fractional expressions (fractions or decimal equivalents), the verb will be determined by what is being measured is it countable or not.

 Ex: - One-half of the students were convinced that there would be no final exams in this   year.

                      - Two and two is four

Ø  Phrases such as together with, along with, as well as seem to join subjects, but they do not work the same as “and”, they are not conjunctions.

                Ex: The mayor as well as his brothers is going to prison.

Ø  Some indefinite pronouns — such as all, some — are singular or plural depending on what they're referring to. (Is the thing referred to countable or not?) Be careful choosing a verb to accompany such pronouns.

             Eg :  Some of the beads are missing.    

                      Some of the water is gone.

Ø  Verbs in the present tense for third-person, singular subjects (he, she, it and anything those words can stand for) have s-endings. Other verbs do not add s-endings.

Ex : He loves and she loves and they love_ and . . . .

Ø  If your sentence compounds a positive and a negative subject and one is plural, the other singular, the verb should agree with the positive subject.

Ex: The department members but not the chair have decided not to teach on Valentine's Day.

Ø  The pronouns neither and either are singular and require singular verbs even though they seem to be referring, in a sense, to two things.

Ex: Neither of the two traffic lights is working.