Subject–Verb Agreement — The Six Traps Papers Keep Reusing

The Rule Everything Else Hangs On

Subject–verb agreement is the most heavily tested point in every error-spotting and fill-in-the-blank section you will sit.

The rule itself is one line: a singular subject takes a singular verb, a plural subject takes a plural verb.

> The boy plays. / The boys play.

Notice something odd. In the present tense the -s goes on the *verb* when the *subject* is singular — the exact opposite of what -s does to a noun. Students who learnt "-s means plural" carry that confusion for years.

Nobody loses marks on "The boy play". Marks are lost when the paper puts five words between the subject and the verb, or dresses a singular subject up as a plural one. Every trap in this chapter is one of those two moves.

Find the real subject first. The verb then follows on its own.

1. Fill in the blank: The quality of these mangoes ______ poor.

2. Fill in the blank: Neither the principal nor the teachers ______ informed about the change.

3. Which of the following words takes a SINGULAR verb even though it ends in -s?

4. Fill in the blank: He is one of those students who ______ hard every single day.

5. Fill in the blank: The number of applicants this year ______ higher than last year.

6. Fill in the blank: The police ______ already arrested the accused.

7. Fill in the blank: Rice as well as beans ______ sold in that shop.

8. Fill in the blank: Fifty thousand rupees ______ a large sum for a student.