Grammar/Subject and Verb Agreement

Subject/Verb Agreement

In scholarly writing within STEM fields, it is important to ensure that the verb in each sentence matches or “agrees with” the subject of the sentence. The three examples below outline some particularly tricky sentence structures.

Tip: Remember throughout that the subject comes at the start of a sentence, and it is this – and its relationship with the main verb - that is important.

1. Do not be distracted by anything that comes in between the subject and the main verb, as in:

• “ Our friend Suzy, along with her fellow physics club members, is [NOT ‘are’] anxious about tomorrow’s test.”
• “ My classmate, with all his textbooks, takes up [NOT ‘take up’] a whole library desk.”

2. Collective nouns that imply more than one person/thing are involved are still treated as singular subjects, as in:

• “ The team runs [NOT ‘run’] during training.”
• “ The Physics Club watches [NOT ‘watch’] videos at their meetings.”

3. When your writing includes a compound subject that is joined by ‘or’ or ‘nor’, the verb should agree with the part of that subject that is closest to the verb, as in:

• “ Neither Suzy nor her friends, Claire and Ash, want [NOT ‘wants’] to take the new class.”
• “ Alana or Jonny is [NOT ‘are’] is going to write up the lab report.”