Noun-Verb Agreement Errors

Noun-Verb Agreement Errors

Nouns and the verbs they're paired with are supposed to "agree" in terms of both "person" and "number" -- that is, who's performing the action and whether there's more than one of them doing it.  Like this:  You walk to the beach, but he or she walks there.  (That's a shift in person.)  Or this: One diner eats at a restaurant, but two or three eat there.  (That's a shift in number.)

Generally, we make these adjustments automatically, without thinking about them at all.  They follow rules we internalize from the time we begin to speak.

So Why Do People Make These Errors?

These patterns can be complicated for some writers by common dialect differences:  some people, for example, speak sentences like He walk there or It don't matter to me as part of their home dialect or "language of nurture," as some linguists put it.  They follow nonstandard patterns of noun-verb agreement.  

But writers of all sorts, regardless of home dialect, sometimes construct sentences in which subject and verbs do not match in the way we expect them to for other reasons -- because they're unclear about what the subject is.

Here's an example:

High rates of loan default in any neighborhood ultimately creates decay.  

This may or may not sound wrong to your ear, but the subject and verb don't agree.  The subject of this sentence is rates, which is plural, not default or neighborhood, so the verb here should be create (as in high rates create decay):

High rates of loan default in any neighborhood ultimately create decay. 

Mixing up sentence verbs in this way isn't typically an error that readers will judge especially harshly, but getting it right is a strong signal of your technical control, which most readers really do respect.  It makes your work seem careful, controlled, and polished.  And there are moments, too, when getting it wrong can create some level of imprecision or even confusion.

Grammatical Description

Of course, what's important in avoiding noun-verb agreement errors of this sort is knowing what the sentence subject is.  

That's easy when the subject is a clearly tangible person or thing and when there's a single important noun at the beginning of the sentence.  Just ask who or what performs the verb -- who or what verbs, filling in the verb itself when you ask the question -- and it will be pretty easy to find the answer.

Let's reimagine the sentence above, for example, with a different subject:  Salt water creates decay.  So who or what creates decay?  Salt water, of course.  Unless you were accustomed to speaking a nonstandard dialect, you wouldn't be at all confused about what verb to use.  Your instincts would tell you that you wouldn't say Salt water create decay.

But there are moments when it may be harder to identify the sentence subject.  Here are five sources of confusion we see frequently:

1. When subjects are connected to prepositional phrases, especially ones involving units of measurement

If we say Consistently low levels of inflation is no guarantee that prices won't go up quickly, common sense tells us that this sentence is "about" inflation.  And this common sense conclusion is probably reinforced if we make the beginning of the sentence a little longer:

Consistently low levels of inflation across a long period is no guarantee that prices won't go up quickly.  

But the conceptual subject of a sentence isn't necessarily the grammatical one:  the single word that performs the verb isn't necessarily what the sentence seems most "about."  In fact, if we think about it more carefully, it's clear that what is or isn't a guarantee of low prices in the sentence above isn't the inflation itself but its consistently low levels.  More to the point, inflation is the object of a prepositional phrase (of inflation) -- which works as a whole to modify the noun levels -- so inflation really can't be a sentence subject.  In fact, the object of a preposition can never be a sentence subject.  

A good, quick rule of thumb, then:  if you think the subject is in a prepositional phrase, like the x of y, then the subject will always be x, never y.  That's the word you should make the verb agree with.  

So the sentence above should be: 

Consistently low levels of inflation across a long period are no guarantee that prices won't go up quickly. 

2. When there's a cluster of nouns at the beginning of the sentence

Sometimes a string of nouns can be confusing whether there's a unit of measurement like "levels" or not.  Take this sentence:

Tiny particles of decay in the pipe carrying cold water to the faucet was the problem.

What was the problem exactly?  Certainly not the pipe, water, or faucet.  But even if the issue here conceptually seems the decay, it's the particles of decay that really perform the verb.  So this sentence should be:

Tiny particles of decay in the pipe carrying cold water to the faucet were the problem.

3.  In There is or There are sentences

Though subjects usually come at the beginning of sentences, before verbs, There is or There are sentences, which some people call "placeholder" constructions, put the subject at the end, after the verb.  So in the sentence There is a flower on the table, flower is the subject (not there, as people sometimes assume).  If this seems counter-intuitive, just make flower plural and you'll see that it forces you to change the verb:  There are three flowers on the table.  So flowers is clearly the subject.

Few people are ever confused about that.  But when there are multiple subjects, a list of things, that can be a bigger problem.  Consider this sentence:

There was a bottle cap, a half-eaten cookie, and three dry-looking cigars left on the bench.

The subject of this sentence is everything on the bench:  the bottle cap, the cookie, and the three cigars -- so the subject is clearly plural.  That means the verb should be were:

There were a bottle cap, a half-eaten cookie, and three dry-looking cigars left on the bench.

4.  In "inverted" sentences

But there are other instances when we place the subject after the verb that can be confusing as well -- in what people call "inverted sentences," something we often do for effect.  We do this frequently when we tell stories, for example.  Consider this reconstruction of the previous example:

Left on the bench was a bottle cap, a half-eaten cookie, and three dry-looking cigars.

Just like in the last sentence, however, the subject here is everything on the bench -- five separate items.  So again, the subject should be plural:

Left on the bench were a bottle cap, a half-eaten cookie, and three dry-looking cigars.

5. When there are two relatively abstract subjects

If you say Raf and Joe play basketball, it's easy to tell that the subject is plural.  Raf and Joe name specific individuals.  But if the subjects are less tangible and described at greater length, it may be less clear that there are two of them.  Like this:

The speaker's enlightening description of the context and probing analysis of its ultimate effect has changed my mind on this point.

Two qualities change people's minds here -- the description and the analysis.  So the verb should reflect the plural subject:

The speaker's enlightening description of the context and probing analysis of its often ignored results have changed my mind on this point.

Some Fine Points

In addition matching the verb with the wrong subject, there are also some preferred usage conventions that apply.  They include:

1. Neither, either, and each

Neither, either, and each are always understood as singular, even when they seem to refer to something plural.  So:

Neither is very compelling.

Neither of the speakers is very compelling.

Either is very compelling.

Either of the speakers is very compelling.

Each has been filed.

Each of the grades has been filed.

This may seem counter-intuitive, and Neither of the speakers are very compelling may sound natural to you. But Neither is is the preferred usage, and we'd recommend it in formal contexts.

2.  That, which, and who clauses

Think carefully about the verbs in that, which, and who clauses.  Sometimes they're singular and sometimes they're plural, depending on what that, which, and who refer to.  But if you think about it carefully, it should make sense to you.  Like this:

One of the things that separate fennel from anise is that anise seed is a little sweeter. 

This sentence suggests that a few qualities separate anise from fennel -- so qualities separate.  But:

The only quality that separates rivers from streams is their size. 

Only size makes a difference in this context -- so quality separates.

3.  Collective nouns

Sometimes nouns representing a group of people or things can be treated as plural, even when the noun itself is singular.  So when the noun acts as a single entity:

The committee meets in May.

But when its members are acting individually, it's also ok to say:

The committee make up their own minds about issues.

If it seems more natural to you to say something like The committee members make up their own minds, we agree.  Still, though it's more common in British English, you'll see this construction used in some formal writing in this country as well.