Subject-Verb Agreement: Make the Verb Match Its Subject

0:00What does it mean for a verb to agree with its subject?

0:04Here is a short passage about a visit to a farm.

0:09Each sentence has a subject, who or what it is about, and a verb, what the subject does.

0:16The verb must agree with its subject: singular with singular, plural with plural.

0:23In the present tense, a singular noun like the goat takes a verb that ends in s: the goat eats.

0:31A plural subject takes a verb with no s, as in the goats eat.

0:37Cousins is plural, but lives ends in s, so they do not agree.

0:43Rooster is singular, but crow has no s, so that pair is wrong too.

0:49In the last sentence, the subject is basket, not eggs. The words of eggs only describe the basket.

0:57Basket is singular, but sit has no s.

1:02Here is the same passage with every verb matching its subject.

1:06Live loses its s, and crows and sits each gain one.

1:11Now every verb agrees with its subject, and the passage reads smoothly.

1:17Find the subject, decide if it is singular or plural, and make the verb match.