Writing Tip of the Week - Subject-Verb Agreement

If you have a hard time remembering how to make your subjects and verbs get along with each other, this chart might be useful.

There are 6 types of subjects. Let's look at them.

The left column on the chart shows the singular subects and the column on the right shows the plural subjects.

The rows show first person, second person and third person points-of-view.

Every subject has two parts: point-of-view and singular/plural. For example, the word "I" is first person singular, while the word "they" is third person plural.

Let's take a closer look at the word "you." It's both singular and plural. For example, if I'm talking to one friend, I might say, "You are my friend." If I'm talking to two or more friends, I would still say, "You are my friends."

There are many slang ways to differentiate between the singular and plural "you." In the South, they say "you all" or "y'all." In New York, they say "yous." We Pennsylvanians usually say "you'uns or "y'uns," depending on which said of the state you live! Those are all forms of slang. You should avoid slang when writing, and use "you" whether your subject is singular or plural.

I've conjugated the regular verb "walk" on this chart so that you can see the different forms. Note how they change depending on the subject.

On this chart, I've conjugated the irregular verb "to be." Part of what makes this verb irregular none of the present tense (happening right now) forms of the verb is "be." Again, note how the verb changes with the subject.

And on this chart, I've combined the two verbs to create the infinitive verb "to be walking," so you can see how the verb changes again. The infinitive form just means "a state of being," and usually involves the verb "to be" in one of it's many forms.