Subject-Verb Agreement

We’ve learned about subjects and verbs. A subject is the person, place, or thing that is doing something, and the predicate is the verb- what the subject is doing.

**In a sentence, the subject and the verb have to agree- that means:

• If the subject is SINGULAR (talking about just one noun) then the verb has to be singular.
• If the subject is PLURAL (talking about more than one noun) then the verb has to be plural.

Here is an example: Bobby walks to the store.
Greg and Peter walk to the store.

The singular subject "Bobby" needs a singular verb "walks"
The plural subject "Greg and Peter" need a plural verb "walk"
 

There are other kinds of verbs that we use everyday. These are the BEING verbs. These are words like am, is, are, were, and were.

These are follow the subject-verb agreement rule. 
 

Here is an example:

Marcia is happy.
Jan and Cindy are happy.

The singular subject "Marcia" needs a singular verb "is"
The plural subject "Jan and Cindy" need a plural verb "are"
 
 

Also, don't forget about PAST TENSE! If it happened already, you have to change the verb to let the reader know that it happened in the past.

Here is an example: Present tense (happening right now):

• The students are working.
• Sam runs to school.

• The students were working during Math.
• Sam ran to school this morning.