Subject-Verb Agreement Rules

Why Concord is a Scoring Topic

In the CDS & OTA English paper, the sections on spotting errors and sentence improvement together carry a large bunch of questions, and subject-verb agreement is the favourite hunting ground of the examiner. Almost every year you will find two to four questions where the only fault in the sentence is a verb that does not agree with its true subject.

The reason concord is tested so heavily is that it can be checked objectively — there is exactly one right verb form, so there is no room for argument. That same precision is good news for you: once you know the rule, the answer is not a matter of taste or feel, it is a matter of fact. A prepared candidate gets these marks almost for free.

There is also a second, hidden reward. Subject-verb agreement is not only a question type in its own right; it quietly decides answers in cloze passages, sentence-rearrangement and even comprehension, where one option is eliminated simply because its verb does not match the subject. So the few hours you spend mastering concord pay back across the whole English paper, not just in the error-spotting block. Treat it as foundational, the way you would treat number sense in mathematics.

The Core Rule of Agreement

A verb must agree with its subject in number (singular or plural) and person (first, second, third).

Notice the counter-intuitive part that confuses many candidates: in the present tense it is the verb that takes the -s when the subject is singular, the opposite of how nouns form their plural. So “He writes” is singular, while “They write” is plural.

The verb to be changes most of all and must be watched closely: I am, he is, they are in the present; I/he was, they were in the past. Many exam errors are simply was used where were is needed, or vice versa.

Person matters too, though it trips up fewer candidates. The first-person singular I takes am and was; the third-person singular he, she, it takes is and was; everything plural and the pronoun you take are and were. Helping verbs follow the same logic: we say he has but they have, he does but they do. Whenever a sentence uses has/have or does/do, treat it exactly like the present-tense -s test and the right answer falls out immediately.

Ignore the Phrase Between Subject and Verb

The most common trap is a long phrase sitting between the subject and the verb to lure you into matching the verb with the nearest noun.

Here the subject is quality (singular), not mangoes. The phrase “of the mangoes” is just a modifier and has no say in the verb. To defuse the trap, mentally cross out every phrase starting with of, with, along with, together with, as well as, including, besides, in addition to — the verb still agrees with the original subject.

Subjects Joined by 'And'

Two or more subjects joined by and are normally plural and take a plural verb: Ram and Shyam are friends.

But there are two important exceptions the examiner loves:

• One idea / one unit: when the joined nouns refer to a single person or thing, the verb is singular. Bread and butter is my breakfast. The poet and statesman is dead (one person who is both).
• Preceded by 'each' or 'every': the verb stays singular. Every boy and every girl was present.

'Either...Or' and 'Neither...Nor'

When subjects are joined by or, nor, either...or, neither...nor, the verb agrees with the subject nearer to it (the proximity rule).

A practical drafting tip that examiners themselves follow: place the plural subject second so the sentence sounds natural with a plural verb. Also note that either and neither, when used alone as subjects, are singular: Either of the roads leads to the station. Neither of them is correct.

Watch the person of the nearer subject as well, because the proximity rule decides not just singular versus plural but also the exact verb form. In Either you or I am mistaken, the verb agrees with I, the nearer subject, giving am; in Either I or you are mistaken, it agrees with you, giving are. Such sentences sound slightly awkward, which is exactly why examiners pick them — many candidates “correct” the right answer into a wrong one. When a sentence feels clumsy, rewrite it mentally with the plural subject last and the natural-sounding version usually matches the grammatically correct one.

Indefinite Pronouns

Many pronouns are grammatically singular even though they feel plural in meaning. They take a singular verb.

• Always singular: each, either, neither, everyone, everybody, everything, someone, somebody, anyone, anybody, no one, nobody, nothing, one. — Everyone has a duty. Nobody knows the answer.
• Always plural: both, few, many, several. — Few were chosen.
• Singular or plural by sense: some, any, none, all, most, half — depends on the noun they refer to. Some of the water is gone (water = uncountable); Some of the apples are rotten (apples = countable plural).

Collective Nouns and Quantities

Collective nouns — team, jury, committee, family, government, public, crowd, herd, class — can take either a singular or a plural verb depending on whether the group acts as one unit or as separate individuals.

• One body acting together → singular: The committee has reached a decision.
• Members acting separately → plural: The committee were divided in their opinions.

For CDS, the default expected answer is usually singular unless the sentence clearly shows internal disagreement or individual action. The clue words are revealing: if the rest of the sentence uses a plural pronoun like their or themselves, the collective noun is being viewed as individuals and the verb should be plural; if it uses its, the noun is one body and the verb is singular. So The jury has given its verdict but The jury were unable to agree among themselves. Reading the whole sentence, not just the noun, keeps you consistent.

Amounts, Distances and Titles

When a plural-looking subject names a single amount, distance, time, weight or sum of money treated as one whole, the verb is singular.

• Ten kilometres is a long march.
• Five hundred rupees was the fine.
• Two years has passed since then.

Titles of books, names of countries and organisations that are plural in form but refer to one thing also take a singular verb: “Great Expectations” is a famous novel. The United States is a federal republic.

A related trap: many nouns end in -s yet name a single subject and take a singular verb — news, mathematics, physics, economics, statistics, civics, politics, measles, mumps, innings. No news is good news. Physics is my favourite subject. The mirror image also exists: a few nouns are always plural and demand a plural verb — scissors, trousers, spectacles, tongs, pliers. We say The scissors are sharp; to count them we add “a pair of”, which becomes singular: A pair of scissors is on the table.

Relative Pronouns and 'There/Here'

A relative pronoun — who, which, that — takes a verb that agrees with its antecedent (the noun it stands for).

In sentences beginning with there or here, the real subject comes after the verb, and the verb must agree with it: There is a book on the table. There are many books on the table.

Similarly, when a subject is followed by each, the verb stays plural: The soldiers each carry a rifle. The word each coming after a plural subject does not make the verb singular.

Worked Example: Finding the Real Subject

Let us apply the rules to a tricky sentence and choose the correct verb step by step.

The plural word candidates is a decoy. Because it sits right before the blank, the careless reader picks were. The disciplined reader strips the phrase and matches the verb to list. Train yourself to do Step 3 automatically and these questions become easy marks.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Examiners reuse the same handful of traps. Memorise this checklist before the exam.

• Matching the verb to a noun inside an of-phrase instead of the true subject.
• Treating each, every, either, neither, everyone as plural — they are singular.
• Letting as well as / along with / together with turn a singular subject plural — they do not.
• Using a plural verb for news, mathematics, physics, economics.
• Confusing a number of (plural) with the number of (singular).
• Forgetting the proximity rule for either...or and neither...nor.

Previous-Year Question and Recap