Sentence Agreement

 Grammar-Quizzes
Exceptions: Subject - Verb Agreement Framed | Unframed

 

 

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Sometimes the agreement of subject with verb varies.

Plural Noun with Plural Verb (normal) Singular Noun form with Plural Verb (rare)

goats
A goat is watching us.
The goats are watching us.


shep
A sheep is walking on the road.
The sheep are walking on the road.

 

Some other exceptions:

Singular Nouns with Plural Verbs  
the police
The police are coming.		 The English
The English are a proud people.
THE PEOPLE: The Japanese, The Chinese,
The Portuguese, The Arabs, etc.
Funny People
People are funny.		 Cattle
The cattle are in the field.

For other examples see: Singular-plurals

 

More Exceptions:

Plural Nouns with Singular Verbs!
newspaper
The news is good today!		 US Map
The United States is a large country.
The Philippines, the Maldives, the Netherlands, etc.
Boy Scouts
The Boy Scouts is a large organization.
Organizations: The United Nations,
The Democrats, The Lyons Club, etc.		 Macy Department Store
Macy's is a nation-wide store.
Quantities of time: 24 hrs, 7 days a week,
Four plus four is eight. One and one is two.

teacher
Mathematics is a basic course.
Classes: Mathematics, Statistics, Linguistics

 Clock twenty minutes
Twenty minutes is a short time.
Quantities of time: 24 hrs, 7 days a week,
Four plus four is eight. One and one is two.
English spoken here
English is spoken here.
LANGUAGE: Spanish Japanese, Chinese,
Portuguese, Chinese, Swahili, etc.

Dancing
Dancing is a lot of fun.
Gerunds: running, swimming, cooking, sleeping

 

 
 

Practice

 

Decide whether the sentence needs a singular or plural verb. Choose the answer that best completes the sentence.   * indicates an incorrect answer.

 

 bat and ball

 

# YOUR RESPONSE OPTIONS
1. is     
2.  
3.
4.
5.
6.  
7.
8.
9.
10.
 

 

 

 
 

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Julie Sevastopoulos -   College of San Mateo - San Mateo, CA 94402 USA