Lessons · Teaching · subject and verb, pronoun and antecedent
Subject with verb, pronoun with the thing it stands for
A verb agrees with its subject and not with the nearest noun. A pronoun agrees with its antecedent, which is the noun it replaces, and the antecedent has to be there and be unambiguous. Most test items put distance or a plural-looking phrase between the two so that the nearest noun is the wrong one.
Hone is a place to practise a career, one idea a day. This is one of its lessons, written out in full and free to read without an account.
In beta. This lesson was written for Hone and has not yet been checked by a state certification officer. Practice material, not professional advice. What that means.
What it is for
Nearly every agreement error in real writing comes from the same cause: the writer lost track of the subject across a long phrase. Naming the subject out loud is the fix, and it is exactly the strategy you will teach a child who writes 'the box of pencils are on the desk'.
How to think about it
Cross out every phrase between the subject and the verb and read what is left. 'The box of pencils are' becomes 'the box are', and the error is now audible. For pronouns, point at the noun the pronoun replaces. If you cannot find exactly one, the sentence is faulty even if it reads smoothly.
Worked example
'The box of pencils is on the desk.' The subject is box, not pencilsCross out 'of pencils' and the agreement is obvious.
'Each of the teachers has a key.' Each is singular however many teachers there areEach, every, either and neither take a singular verb, and this is the most tested item in the family.
'When a pupil forgets their book, they should say so' is now accepted in most style guidesThe tests accept singular they. Older guides did not, and that difference is worth knowing.
'The committee gave its report' against 'the committee gave their reports'A collective noun takes a singular verb when the body acts as one and a plural when its members act separately.
Your turn
Name what a verb agrees with, as against the nearest noun.
A verb agrees with its , not with the noun beside it
Solve one, graded on the server
The trap
Trusting your ear on a long sentence. Your ear agrees with the nearest noun, which is precisely the failure the item is built on. Crossing out the middle is slower and right.