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In this guide, bold font and parentheses are used to draw attention to subjects and verbs. Screen Reader Users: Please set your program’s punctuation level to 'most' or 'all' in order to hear the content in parentheses.
Every sentence needs both a subject and a verb to be complete. Some subjects are singular, and some are plural. A singular subject requires a certain form of a verb. In many cases, a plural subject requires a different form of a verb.
For example, the cat (subject) sits (verb), but the cats (subject) sit (verb).
A verb should agree with its singular or plural subject by being in the correct form.
For example
The agreement of pronouns such as “any,” “most,” “all,” “many,” “more,” “some,” “who,” “that,” and “which” depends on whether the word or phrase to which the pronoun refers is countable or noncountable (also known as uncountable).
Countable nouns can usually be expressed in singular and plural (tree/trees, cat/cats, student/students).
Noncountable nouns cannot usually be expressed in plural (research, literature, evidence).
Collective nouns refer to a single group that has multiple members. If the noun refers to the group as a unit, use a singular verb. If the noun refers to the group members as individuals, use a plural verb.
This rule is applicable to sentences in an inverted word order (where the subject follows the verb).
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