Subject-Verb Agreement and Error Spotting Notes

Subject-verb agreement and error spotting form a large part of the English section in SSC, banking, railways, defence and state-level examinations. In an error-spotting question, a sentence is divided into parts, and you must find the part that has a mistake. Most of these mistakes are about agreement between the subject and the verb, tense, articles, prepositions, pronouns and word order. This note explains the rules of subject-verb agreement with examples, then gives a method and a checklist for error spotting, with practice sentences and corrections, in simple language.

The Basic Rule

A singular subject takes a singular verb, and a plural subject takes a plural verb. In the present tense, a singular subject (he, she, it, the boy) takes a verb with -s (writes, goes, has, is), while a plural subject (they, the boys) takes the base form (write, go, have, are). The difficulty arises when words come between the subject and the verb, or when the subject is a collective, uncountable or compound noun. Always find the true subject first, and ignore the phrases in between: in "The quality of the apples is poor", the subject is quality (singular), not apples.

Rules of Agreement

Special Cases to Remember

With "none of", the singular verb is common in formal English but the plural is also accepted: "None of the students was late" or "None of the students were late". Competitive exams usually prefer the singular with "none" when the sense is "not one". With "the majority", use the plural when speaking of people ("The majority of voters are young") and the singular when the group is a unit. "More than one" takes a singular verb: "More than one student has applied." "Neither of the two" is singular. "The rest of" depends on the noun: "The rest of the money is spent." "All" depends on sense: "All is well" (singular) and "All are present" (plural).

A Method for Error Spotting

1. Read the whole sentence once to understand the meaning. Sometimes the error is obvious by sound.
2. Find the subject and the verb and check agreement.
3. Check the tense using time clues like yesterday, since, by next year and the tense of the other verb in the sentence.
4. Check pronouns: case (I/me, who/whom), number and person. Use "between you and me", not "between you and I".
5. Check articles: a before consonant sounds (a university, a one-rupee note), an before vowel sounds (an hour, an honest man), "the" for unique things (the sun).
6. Check prepositions and fixed phrases: in charge of, different from, prefer A to B, discuss (no preposition) about, reach (not reach to), enter (not enter into a room).
7. Check adjectives and adverbs and comparison: avoid double comparatives (not "more better"), use the comparative for two and superlative for more than two.
8. Check word order and parallelism: items in a list should have the same form.
9. If there is no error, mark "No error" only after checking all parts.

Common Error Patterns

• Unnecessary words: "He returned back" (use "returned"), "the reason is because" (use "the reason is that"), "revert back".
• Wrong pairs: "no sooner... than" (not "when"); "hardly... when"; "so... that"; "such... as"; "not only... but also".
• Uncountable nouns: "furnitures", "informations", "advices", "luggages" are wrong; use "furniture", "information", "advice" and "luggage".
• Pronoun order: for good things, "You, he and I"; for mistakes, "I, you and he".
• Comparison: "This book is better than that" (not "more better"); "She is the elder of the two sisters"; "He is senior to me".
• Verb forms: "He has went" is wrong; use "has gone"; "I seen" is wrong; use "I have seen".

Practice Sentences With Corrections

(1) "The news are shocking." Correct: "The news is shocking." (2) "Each of the boys have a pen." Correct: "has". (3) "Neither Ravi nor his friends has come." Correct: "have", agreeing with the nearer subject "friends". (4) "The teacher, along with the students, are going." Correct: "is". (5) "Ten kilometres are a long distance." Correct: "is". (6) "A number of student is absent." Correct: "A number of students are absent." (7) "He is one of the boys who is in the team." Correct: "who are". (8) "Many a boy have won prizes." Correct: "has". (9) "Mathematics are my favourite subject." Correct: "is". (10) "The committee have taken its decision." Correct: "has taken its decision" (treat as a unit). (11) "Between you and I, he is wrong." Correct: "between you and me". (12) "He prefers tea than coffee." Correct: "prefers tea to coffee".

Common Mistakes by Students

Students often choose the noun nearest to the verb as the subject, forget about the phrases such as "along with", fail to notice that uncountable nouns are singular, and miss small errors in parts that look correct. Another mistake is to mark a "rare" word as the error. In the real examination, read the sentence calmly and apply the checklist in order.

How to Practise Error Spotting Every Day

Error spotting is a skill of the eye and the ear, and it improves with steady practice. Take ten sentences a day from a good practice book or a previous year paper. Cover the options, find the error on your own and only then check the answer. For every mistake, write the sentence in a notebook with the rule beside it and the corrected version. Review the notebook every weekend; you will notice that most of your errors come from only five or six rules, and you can fix those quickly. Also read an English editorial each day and underline the verbs with their subjects. This helps you see correct agreement in real use. Reading aloud also helps, because many wrong sentences sound strange when spoken. Over a month, you will move from guessing to knowing why a sentence is wrong, and that confidence will also help you in writing essays and emails.

Time Management in the Examination

Allow about 30 seconds for each error-spotting question. Do not spend long on a sentence that seems to have no error; mark "No error" only after checking the subject-verb pair, tense, pronoun, article and preposition. If two parts both look wrong, one of them is likely a trap; read the full sentence again and decide which one violates a clear rule. Leave the most confusing ones for the end.

Quick Revision

• Find the real subject; ignore words in between.
• Each, every, either, neither and one take singular verbs; a number of is plural, the number of is singular.
• Either-or and neither-nor use the nearer subject; along with and as well as use the first subject.
• Time, money and distance as one unit are singular; the news, mathematics and politics are singular.

Reading good English daily trains your ear for natural sentences. Combine this reading with the rules above and a daily set of ten error-spotting sentences, and your accuracy will improve steadily.

Related Notes to Read Next

Continue your preparation with these related notes from the same subject:

• Vocabulary Notes: Synonyms and Antonyms for Competitive Exams
• Idioms and Phrases Notes for Competitive Exams
• Reading Comprehension Notes for Competitive Exams
• All English notes

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

What is subject-verb agreement?

Subject-verb agreement means that the verb in a sentence must match its subject in number (singular or plural) and person.

Which pronouns take a singular verb?

Pronouns like each, every, either, neither, one, everyone, everybody, someone and nobody take a singular verb.

How do I choose the verb in "either...or" sentences?

The verb agrees with the subject nearest to it, as in "Either you or he is responsible".

What is the verb rule for "along with"?

The verb agrees with the first subject. In "The manager, along with his staff, was present", the verb is singular because of "manager".

Is "news" singular or plural?

"News" is singular, even though it ends in s. We say "The news is good".

How is "a number of" different from "the number of"?

"A number of" is followed by a plural verb, while "the number of" takes a singular verb.

How do I treat collective nouns?

Use a singular verb when the group acts as one unit and a plural verb when its members act individually.

What is the rule for "one of the" sentences?

The verb is singular, as in "One of my friends is a doctor". With a relative clause after "one of those who", the verb is plural.

What is error spotting?

Error spotting is a question type in which a sentence is divided into parts and you must find the part that contains a grammatical error.

Is "He returned back" correct?

No. "Returned" already means came back, so "back" is unnecessary. The correct form is "He returned".

What is the correct form: "between you and I" or "between you and me"?

"Between you and me" is correct, because a preposition takes the object form of the pronoun.

How can I improve in error spotting?

Learn the rules, read English newspapers daily, practise a set of sentences every day and keep a notebook of the errors you make.