Agreement in sentences
Ensure subject-verb agreement and pronoun-antecedent agreement within and across sentences
What a learner can do afterwards
- Correct 'The group of children were laughing' to 'The group of children was laughing' and explain the singular subject
- Choose the correct pronoun in 'Each student must bring ____ (his or her / their) book' and explain the antecedent link
- Identify and fix three agreement errors in a short paragraph, explaining each correction
1 · Read
You already know a verb has to match its subject. Some subjects look like a crowd, but they act like one single thing. Words like team, group, class, and family name a whole bunch of people, but the word itself is singular. In this lesson, treat each group word as one unit. When you point back to one group, use it or its, as in the team won its game.
The group of children was laughing. Group is the subject, and it names one group, so the verb is was, not were, even though there are many children inside it.
The trick shows up with pronouns. Words like each, everyone, and every student are singular too. When they mean one person at a time, use his, her, or their when you do not know who. When each means one animal, thing, or group at a time, as in Each of the dogs, use its.
Each student must bring their book. Each student is singular, and their points back to one student at a time. Must stays the same with one or many, so it does not change here.
When you check a sentence, find the true subject first. Ask: does this word name one whole thing, like team or each, or many separate things? Then match the verb and any pronoun to that answer.
In this lesson, treat group words and each/every words as one, so match the verb and pronoun to that one, not to the crowd hiding inside.
2 · Watch
Take it off screen
Where it sits
Where this leads
Jobs that lean on this skill. Follow one to see everything it is built on.
24 questions wait behind this lesson, each with its answer explained. Every answer feeds the sky: stars light as they are learned, and dim when it is time to come back.