Subject-Verb Agreement + Pronouns

Question

Subject-Verb Agreement

Subject – Verb agreement is the most commonly tested question type on the GMAT.

Every sentence has a subject and a verb which must agree in number. 
  The GMAT tries to make the subject of sentence as confusing as possible, so that you do not know whether the subject is singular or plural.  
  The key to making subjects and verbs agree in GMAT sentence is to first determine whether the subject of each sentence (or clause) is singular or plural.

There are two important review points pertaining to the Subject-Verb agreement

1. Subject and Verb must agree in Numbers 
 Rule: A singular subject must take a singular verb and a plural subject must take a plural verb.

The key to making subjects and verbs agree in GMAT sentences is to find the subject that goes with a particular verb. To find the subject, you must ignore all the words that are not the subject

A Singular subject requires a singular verb form:  The dog runs out of the house.
 A Plural subject requires a plural verb form:  The dogs run out of the house.
 REMEMBER: Only the third person singular subjects (e.g. he, she, it) takes the –S ending. All other subjects use the base form. (Except with the verb be)

2. Subject and Verb must make sense together. 
 THE MEANING PRINCIPLE: A CORRECT ANSWER MUST HAVE A CLEAR MEANING.

Thus the subject-verb must make logical sense.

e.g. The development of a hydrogen car based on expected performance parameters will be able to travel hundreds of miles without refueling. 
The development of a hydrogen car……..will be able to travel…..? It is not the  development  that will be able to travel. We want to say that the hydrogen car itself will be able to travel. Make sure that the subject and the verb actually have a sensible meaning together.
 Correct:  Once developed, a hydrogen  car  based on expected performance parameters  will be able  to travel hundreds of miles without refueling.

How will the Subject-Verb Agreement be tested on the GMAT

By Putting Interrupters between the subject and the verb  
 
There are three types of interrupters commonly placed between the subject and the verb.
    Appositives:  Appositives are nouns, pronouns, or noun phrases that are placed next to nouns to further describe them.
Consider this Sentence:  The concert, featuring the Oak City Bango Kings, begin at 7.00. 
Here the phrase  featuring the oak…….kings  describes the subject  The Concert . The sentence tries to confuse us by ending the phrase with the plural  kings .
To avoid such confusion, omit the part between commas, and the error will immediately become obvious.
 Correct:  The concert, featuring the Oak City Bango Kings, begins at 7.00

Relative Clauses:  A part of the sentence preceded by relative pronoun modifying the antecedent. 
 Incorrect:   The Spanish artist, who is one of the world’s leading exponents of salsa and is known to have taught thousands of students, are living in exile.

Here the relative clause ends with the plural  students  confusing us whether to use  are  or  is . We should note that the main subject is  Artist  and main verb must agree with it.

Correct:   The Spanish  artist , who is one of the world’s leading exponents of salsa and is known to have taught thousands of students,  is  living in exile.

Prepositional Phrases:  Phrases beginning with preposition and ending with noun/pronoun modify the first word (a noun or verb) in the relationship.

Incorrect:   The Animals in the zoo is hungry.

The subject is the plural  Animals , so the verb must be the plural  are .
 
 Correct:  The Animals in the zoo are hungry.

By putting Additives after subject.

In English, only the word  "and"  can give a plural subject. All other phrases (such as  as well as, including, in addition to ) merely add extra information to the subject.
So when you see the sentence like one below, do not fall in to the trap. Eliminate the additive phrase and then check Subject-verb agreement.

Incorrect:  John, as well as his friend, are coming for dinner
 Correct:  John, as well as his friend, is coming for dinner.

Incorrect:  Mathematics, in addition to history and science, are a required subject.
 Correct:  Mathematics, in addition to history and science, is a required subject.
 Correct:  Mathematics, history, and science, are required subjects.

Some common Additives: 
 in addition to
along with
as well as
together with
including

IMPORTANT NOTE:  In the following two cases, even though two subjects are connected by  “and”  they will be considered singular subject.
 Case 1:  If the parts refer to the same person or thing, or works as a single unit, then the verb should be singular
e.g.  Strawberries and cream  is a high calorie snack.

Case 2:  If the compound subject is preceded by each or every (thus referring to each subject individually), then the verb should be singular
e.g. Every  freshman  and  transfer student  is required to take student life.

A hint is to look at the word that follows the verb. If this word is singular, the verb most probably will be singular. For example, in the sentence in Case 1, the singular word  snack  follows  is  and this implies that strawberries and cream is a singular subject.

Either or / Neither nor.

In  either…..or  and  neither ……..nor  structure, the  verb always agree with the subject that is closer to it .
e.g. Neither the president nor his cabinet  members    are   in Washington this week.
e.g. Neither the cabinet members nor the  president    is   in Washington this week.

IMPORTANT NOTE:  When  either  or  neither  is used in a sentence without the  or  or  nor , then the verb has to be singular.
e.g. Neither of john’s friends  is  here.

Collective Nouns.

A  collective  or  group  noun identifies a single entity that is composed of more than one unit:  class, team, faculty, majority, family, series, committee, audience, crowd .
Collective nouns are singular when they act as one unit.
e.g. The  committee   meets  Friday at noon.
e.g. A  majority   is  needed to pass the bill.

But if the context of the sentence emphasizes the individual members of the group, collective nouns are plural.
e.g. The  committees   meet  each Friday at noon.

NOTE:  On the GMAT, collective nouns are almost always considered singular and therefore require singular verb forms. (Reference :- (1) Aristotle SC Grail, 3rd Edition, Page No 55. (2) MGMAT SC Guide 4th Edition, Page No 40.)

Commonly confused singular subjects.  
 Each/Every
Anyone/Everyone/Someone
Anybody/Everybody/Somebody
Anything/Everything/Something
Whoever/Whatever
Either/Neither (unless accompanied with ‘or/nor’)
Nobody/Nothing/No one

NOTE:   each  following a subject has no bearing on the verb form.
e.g. They  each   are  great tennis players

The number/A number

The number   is singular:  The number  of acres destroyed by wildfires  has  increased dramatically over the past several years.

A number   is plural:  A number  of students  are  standing outside the office.

Quantity Words and Phrases  
When discussing fractions or percentages, always get the verb to agree with the subject after the preposition. This is an exception to the preposition rule discussed earlier.
e.g.  Half of the  money is   stolen
e.g.  Half of the  books are   stolen

IMPORTANT NOTE:   Majority  by itself is singular but when majority refers to a set of people it is plural.
e.g.  A majority  is always right.
e.g.  A majority of students  are right.

Subject Phrases and Clauses: Always Singular  
Sometimes the subject of a sentence is an - Ing  phrase or even a whole clause. This sort of subject is always singular and requires a singular verb form.

Examples: 
 Having good friends   is  a wonderful thing.
 Whatever they want to do   is  fine with me.
 Delivering pizzas   is  not a glamorous job, but it pays my bills.

Indefinite Pronouns

Most of the indefinite pronouns are considered singular except for   SANAM   pronouns

SANAM:   Some, all, none, any, most .
In case of SANAM pronoun, it can be singular or plural depending on the context of the sentence.
e.g. Some of the students are in the class.
e.g. Some of the water is in the glass.

Inverted Sentences

Usually in a sentence the subject always precedes the verb, but sometimes the GMAT can reverse this order, so that the verb comes before the subject.

Incorrect:  Through the Golden Eagle Bridge  passes  thousands of vehicles every day.

In the above sentence, the singular verb  passes  is not referring to the singular  Golden Eagle Bridge  but to the plural  thousands of vehicles . Hence, the correct verb will be the plural  pass .

Correct:  Through the Golden Eagle Bridge  pass  thousands of vehicles every day.

Summing Up All 
 
  If the sentence is very long, omit the part between commas.
  Collective Nouns ( class, faculty, majority ) are almost always singular. 
  Whenever you see the words  each, every, and, as well as, or, etc.  in a sentence, always check for subject-verb agreement mismatch. 
  If you are still confused, go with the singular. 
  SANAM ( some, all, none, any, most ) can be both singular and plural.

Questions to practice 
 Questions on Subject Verb Agreement

Disclaimer:  This Article is the collection of notes/strategy tips/rules discussed in the strategy guides listed below. For the deep insights of Subject-Verb Agreement error type, readers can refer to these strategy guides.

List of Sources: 
Aristotle GMAT Sentence Correction Grail, 3rd Edition.
Kaplan GMAT Verbal Foundations, 2009 Edition
Veritas Prep Sentence Correction Lesson Book, 3rd Edition
Manhattan GMAT Sentence Correction Guide, 4th Edition

Mehemmed · Answer

Thank you for the amazing thread. Are there consolidated materials like this for the other verbal topics?

Sreyoshi007 · Answer

Do check https://gmatclub.com/forum/subject-verb ... 65424.html Mehemmed They have all SVA related topics as well as questions posted.

Victz · Answer

Some quick additions to the M in the SANAM pronouns: Most/more/majority/minority Source: Manhattan https://books.google.com/books?id=D5HlC ... al&f=false

Stelo · Answer

Regarding subject verb agreement, in sentences with both dependent and independent clause - do ALL verbs need to match the subject (Singular/Plural)?

OR do verbs just need to match the clause they are in....for example, if the 1st part of the sentence is a dependent caluse that is plural, should the verbs in dependent clause be in the plural form, despite the independent clause with a subject that is singular?

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AmarpreetK · Answer

Thank you for this detailed post on such an important topic in Verbal. The rules are given in a concise manner. I will definitely be using this style of writing to make my SC Strategy and Rules guide.

anwesharath · Answer

Hi, could somebody please tell me whether academic subjects like Statistics, Mathematics, etc. are considered singular/ plural?

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amanmittal7 · Answer

I saw a couple of questions and remain confused. I understand that "Strawberry and cream" is an unhealthy snack works because it is considered a single unit. However, when it comes to a sentence such as "There is a boy and a girl on the playground", should it be "There are a boy and a girl in the playground"?

KarishmaB GMATNinja GMATNinjaTwo MartyTargetTestPrep

Please help! And thank you in advance.

KarishmaB   GMATNinja   GMATNinjaTwo   MartyTargetTestPrep

Please help! And thank you in advance.

KarishmaB · Answer

In this case, we use "is" with singular and "are" with plural noun (that follows the verb)

There is a boy.
There are two children.

When we have a list of items following the verb, we usually use is/are depending on the number of the first item. Though we are talking about multiple items, but usage of 'are' doesn't sound good.

There is a boy, a girl and a dog.
There are two children and a dog.

Puritans would probably insist on the use of 'are' in all such cases but it is not seen commonly and sounds awkward.

Subject-Verb Agreement + Pronouns

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