Subject-Verb Agreement: 10 TRICKY cases! 😬

subject verb agreement is one of the first things you learn in English class it means the subject of the sentence has to have the correct verb form I like pizza he likes Pizza my friend was on vacation my friends were on vacation simple right well watch out because today we'll look at 10 tricky cases some situations where the correct subject verb agreement might not be so obvious many English Learners make mistakes with these so pay close attention and after watching this lesson make sure to try the quiz to test yourself you can download it by clicking on the link under this video and entering your email address our first tricky case has to do with the words everybody and everyone we say everybody is happy not everybody are happy everyone has problems not everyone have problems even though the words everyone and everybody refer to multiple people in English grammar they take the same verb form as he she or it everyone has everybody is anybody or anyone somebody or someone and nobody or no one are the same we say does anybody want coffee not do anybody want coffee I hope someone has a good idea not someone have nobody likes the new English teach teacher not nobody like tricky case number two has to do with club team family Army and committee these words also talk about groups of people but just like everybody they take the singular form of the verb so we say the club meets on Monday nights it meets on Monday nights the basketball team has a new coach not have a new coach my family is visiting me for the holidays not are visiting me the Army was quickly defeated the committee makes important decisions now I'm speaking from the point of view of American English but in British English family and team often take a plural verb tricky case number three police usually police takes the plural form of the verb the police are investigating the murder police have arrested three suspects now to talk about an individual member of the police we can say policeman police woman or the neutral term police officer and those would all take the singular form of the verb the policeman is looking for evidence a police officer has arrived at the scene of the accident tricky case number four people children men women mice and feet these are all irregular plural nouns nouns that are not formed by just adding s but they still take the plural form of the verb our children are very well behaved not our children is the people like the new president men don't usually enjoy shopping for clothes not men doesn't my feet are cold we've got two feet and they are cold tricky case number five news politics economics and gymnastics these words end in s but they are grammatically singular so we say the news has been published not the news have been published gymnastics is great exercise economics was my worst class in school tricky case number six pants scissors and glasses these words each refer to a single object but they are grammatically plural these pants are too small not this pants is too small these pants are too small where are the scissors not where is the scissors when I last saw your glasses they were on the table got it tricky case number seven data there is a debate about the word data technically data is plural the singular form is datam but in common usage people often treat data like information as an uncountable noun which would take the singular form so in practice both forms are essentially considered correct the data is accurate and the data are accurate but the second one is more grammatically correct the data are accurate tricky case number eight there whether we use a singular or plural verb depends on what comes immediately after it we say there is a table and two chairs in the room but there are two chairs and a table in the room there was an Apple a banana and an orange in the bowl there were several pieces of fruit in the bowl there has been an increase in crime lately there have been many car accidents on this street tricky case number nine neither neither refers to two things and it means not one and not the other one so should we use a singular or plural verb after it well we have a few different structures with neither we have neither a nor B neither one and neither of plus a plural technically neither goes with a singular verb and that's how we use it with the first two structures so we say neither Mary nor Eva has a car I read two books neither one was any good not neither one were any good but when we have the sentence structure neither of plus a plural or neither a nor B when those items are plural then many people people use the plural verb to kind of match the plural noun for example neither of my parents have a college degree neither of those houses were big enough for our family we have two computers neither of them are working right now neither the pears nor the bananas are ripe neither the parents nor the children were informed about the schedule change and tricky case number 10 half of a third of 40% of some and most similarly to there whether we use a singular or plural verb depends on what follows them the verb always matches the following word check out these examples half of the students are from another country half of the class is from another country some of these facts are incorrect some of this information is incorrect 40% of the people don't support the new law 40% of the country doesn't support the new law none of my things were damaged in the fire none of my furniture was damaged in the fire now you know how subject verb agreement Works in some of these more advanced cases go ahead and download the lesson PDF and try the quiz to test yourself on subject verb agreement in these tricky situations if you want to take your English grammar to the next level and really Master the advanced details of the Lang language come join my Advanced English grammar course it will help you understand grammar easily and use it correctly and confidently in your own [Music] English