Agreement Between Subjects and Verbs

Examine these following sentences:

• The banana is ripe.
• The girl is angry.
• The man has money.
• She does not know where he is.
• My brother likes sweets.

• The bananas are ripe.
• The girls are angry.
• The men have money.
• They do not know where he is.
• My brother and my sister like sweets.

From the two sets of examples above you see that verbs (in bold) agree with their subjects in number. Singular subjects take singular verbs. Plural subjects take plural verbs. Usually singular verbs take "-s" ending. Some verbs especially those that end with "-o" like "to do" and "to go" or those that end with "-tch" or "-th" take "-es" ending for the singular form. Examples are:

• to sit - sits
• to drink - drinks
• to eat - eats
• to catch - catches
• to watch - watches
• to go - goes
• to do - does
• to move - moves

A care must be taken for the verb "to be" and "to have" because they take their singular forms in quite different ways from the regular verbs. "to have" becomes "has" and "to be" is a little tricky to get both the singular and plural forms:

"To be" becomes:

• I am (singular)
• You are (singular)
• He is (singular)
• She is (singular)
• It is (singular)
• We are (plural)
• You are (plural)
• They are (plural)