Oct 17 2008
Tricky Subject-Verb Agreement Issues
We all know verbs should agree with their subjects. You would never write, “We usually goes to the store after Tim get up from his nap.” (Please tell me you wouldn’t write that.)
But the subject-verb agreement thing is not always so clear-cut. For example, look at the following sentence:
My greatest concern are the numerous accidents we’ve had in the factory this year.
Did you guess what’s wrong with that sentence? Yes, the “are” should be “is,” as in:
My greatest concern is the numerous accidents we’ve had in the factory this year.
Do you know why? It’s because the verb must agree with the subject, which, in this case, is “concern” (singular). In the first sentence, the writer made the mistake of making the verb agree with the words that followed the subject: “the numerous accidents” (plural). But “the numerous accidents” is not the sentence’s subject. It merely describes what the concern is. Ah, how easy it is to be led astray!
Let’s tackle a few more of these mischievous sentences. Read and correct them….
- The reason I love Jane are her many virtues.
- The foundation for his hatred are the offenses of the wealthy class.
- The one-time bonus given to all the vice presidents of all the departments were considered exorbitant.
Here are the correct versions of the sentences:
- The reason I love Jane is her many virtues. (The reason is ….)
- The foundation for his hatred is the offenses of the wealthy class. (The foundation is ….)
- The one-time bonus given to all the vice presidents of all the departments was considered exorbitant. (The bonus was ….)
The bottom line: pay attention and be careful. Few of us would ever make mistakes with subject-verb agreement if we exercised a bit of caution.
