What are the seven subject and verb agreement rules

RULE1: The subject and verb must agree in number: both must be singular, or both must be plural.

Example:The car belongs to my brother.(SINGULAR)

They also play football.(PLURAL)

RULE2: The number of the subject (singular or plural) is not changed by words(or a phrase) that come in between the subject and the verb.

Example: One of the boxes is open.

Here,the subject “one” and the verb “is” are both singular.

RULE3: Some subjects always take a singular verb even though the meaning may seem plural.

Example: Someone in the game was (not were) hurt.

RULE4: The following words may be singular or plural, depending upon their use in a sentence: some,any, all, most.

Example: Most of the news is good. (singular)

Most of the flowers were yellow. (plural)

RULE5: Subjects joined by “and” are plural. Subjects joined by “or” or “Nor” take a verb that agrees with the last subject.

Example: Bob and George are leaving.

Neither Bob nor George is leaving.

RULE6: “There” and “here” are never subjects.In sentences that begin with these words, the subject is usually found later on in the sentence.

Example: There were five books on the shelf. (were, agrees with the subject “book”)

RULE7: Collective nouns may be singular or plural, depending on their use in the sentence.

Examples: The orchestra is playing a hit song. (Orchestra is considered as one unit—singular)

The orchestra were asked to give their musical backgrounds. (Orchestra is considered as separate units-plural)

Explanation: