Basic SVA

What is Subject-Verb Agreement?

The verb must agree with its subject in number (singular or plural). The key rule: find the true grammatical subject — ignore all intervening prepositional phrases, relative clauses, or parenthetical expressions between the subject and the verb.

Core Rules

Singular → singular verb

The manager is in a meeting.

Plural → plural verb

The managers are in a meeting.

Intervening phrases

Subject + (with / along with / as well as / in addition to / together with) + noun — verb agrees with SUBJECT, not the added noun

Inverted sentences

There is / are ... — verb agrees with the noun that follows (There are three issues.)

Example Sentences

The manager, along with her assistants, is attending the seminar.

The results of the audit were released this morning.

There are three pending invoices on your desk.

Each of the employees is required to complete the training.

The quality of the products has improved significantly.

The team, together with its external consultants, is finalising the report.

One of the proposals meets all our requirements.

The number of applications has increased this year.

A number of issues have been raised by the committee.

Neither the policy nor its amendments are available online.

Common Mistakes

The results of the audit was released.

The results ... were released.

The subject is 'results' (plural); ignore the prepositional phrase 'of the audit'.

A number of employees is absent.

A number of employees are absent.

'A number of' = 'several' → takes a plural verb. 'The number of' takes a singular verb.

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