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College Writing Skills, Media Edition, 5/e
John Langan, Atlantic Community College
Subject-Verb Agreement

Key Terms

compound subject
two subjects separated by a joining word such as and. Compound subjects generally take a plural verb.


indefinite pronoun
a word that refers to people and things that are not named or are not specific. Many indefinite pronouns (e.g., one, nobody, nothing, each, etc.) take a singular verb; others, such as both or few, take plural verbs.


plural subject
a word or words denoting more than one person or thing that performs the verb or receives the main action of the verb (in passive constructions)


singular subject
a word or words denotingone person or thing that performs the verb or receives the main action of the verb (in passive constructions)


subject-verb agreement
the correspondence in number between the subject and the verb of a sentence: plural subjects take plural verbs, and singular subjects take singular verbs. Ex.: The crinkly lines (plural) around Joan’s mouth give (plural) her a friendly look.










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