SAT Subject-Verb Agreement: Identifying and Fixing Mismatched Verbs

A verb must agree with its subject in number: singular subjects take singular verbs, plural subjects take plural verbs. "The cat runs" (singular subject, singular verb). "The cats run" (plural subject, plural verb). The challenge is identifying the true subject, especially when other words intervene. "The leader of the team is strong" has "leader" as the subject (not "team"), so "is" (singular) is correct. Prepositional phrases between subject and verb often cause confusion: "The box of apples is heavy" (subject "box" is singular; "of apples" is a phrase describing the box, not part of the subject). A quick three-step check: (1) Identify the subject by removing all prepositional phrases and dependent clauses; (2) Determine if the subject is singular or plural; (3) Select the verb form that matches the subject's number. This mechanical process prevents agreement errors.

Compound subjects (joined by "and") usually take plural verbs: "The cat and dog run." However, subjects joined by "or" or "nor" agree with the nearest subject: "Either the cat or the dogs run" (plural because "dogs" is nearest). "Either the dogs or the cat runs" (singular because "cat" is nearest). These exceptions trip up many students, so understanding the "nearest subject" rule for or/nor prevents errors on these trickier sentences.

Collective nouns (group, team, family) can be singular or plural depending on whether you emphasize the group as one unit or as individuals. "The team is strong" (unit) vs. "The team are divided in their opinions" (individuals). On the SAT, collective nouns are typically treated as singular, but context matters. Indefinite pronouns (everyone, anybody, nobody, someone) are always singular: "Everyone is here" not "Everyone are here." This error appears frequently and costs points. Phrases like "along with," "as well as," and "in addition to" do not make the subject plural; they add information but don't change the subject's number. "The principal, along with teachers, was present" (subject "principal" is singular; "along with teachers" is additional info, not part of the subject). A checklist of error-prone situations: (1) Prepositional phrases between subject and verb (ignore the phrase); (2) Compound subjects with or/nor (match nearest); (3) Collective nouns (usually singular); (4) Indefinite pronouns (always singular); (5) Phrases like "along with" (ignore them). Practicing this checklist on daily drills catches most agreement errors before they appear in your writing.

Inverted sentence order (verb before subject) confuses many students. "Here are the students" (subject "students" is plural, so "are" is correct; not "Here is the students"). Identify the subject first, then verify the verb agrees. Always find the true subject before choosing a verb form.

A relative clause (starting with who, which, that) contains its own subject and verb. The relative pronoun (who, which, that) refers to the antecedent (the noun it describes) and affects the clause's verb agreement. "The students who are present..." (who=students=plural, so "are"). "The student who is present..." (who=student=singular, so "is"). "The box that contains apples is heavy" (that=box=singular, so "contains"). A common error: mistakenly making the relative clause verb agree with a nearby noun rather than the antecedent. "One of the students who have..." (who refers to "students," which is plural, so "have"; not "has" even though "one" is singular). To avoid relative clause errors, identify the antecedent that the relative pronoun refers to, determine the antecedent's number, then make the relative clause verb match that number.

In complex sentences with multiple clauses, each clause has its own subject and verb, and each verb agrees with its own subject. "The team that plays well wins games" has two verbs: "plays" agrees with "team" (singular), and "wins" agrees with "team" (singular). "The teams that play well win games" has "play" agreeing with "teams" (plural) and "win" agreeing with "teams" (plural). Checking each verb independently against its own subject prevents agreement errors in longer sentences.

A daily 10-minute drill for one week builds agreement fluency. Day 1: Identify subjects and verbs in 10 sentences with prepositional phrases between them. Day 2: Correct agreement errors involving compound subjects and or/nor. Day 3: Fix errors with collective nouns and indefinite pronouns. Day 4: Correct relative clause agreement errors. Days 5-7: Take mixed sentences and identify and fix any agreement errors. After this week of focused practice, subject-verb agreement errors should feel obvious and you should catch them instinctively during reading and writing.

On test day, when reviewing writing questions, apply the three-step check on any sentence containing a verb. This habit catches agreement errors before you select an answer. If uncertain, read your selected answer aloud in the context of the sentence; mismatches often sound wrong even if you cannot articulate the grammatical rule. Trust your intuition informed by practice.