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
The lesson
You already know a verb has to match its subject. Today's tricky part is this: 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.
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 same trick shows up with pronouns. Words like each, everyone, and every student sound like they mean lots of people, but each one of them is singular too. That means the pronoun that points back to them should be singular, like his, her, or the flexible their when you don't know who.
Each student must bring their book. Each student is singular, so the verb is must, not a plural form, and their points back to one student at a time, even though the whole class is bringing books.
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.
Group words and each/every words count as one, so match the verb and pronoun to that one, not to the crowd hiding inside.
Watch it
Where it sits
This opens up
Nothing builds on it yet.
Where this leads
Jobs that lean on this skill. Follow one to see everything it is built on.
8 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.