Subject - verb agreement 2:
Singular and plural subjects
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Grammar Challenge bbclearningenglish.com
BBC Learning English 2008
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Catherine's Grammar Explanation:
Hi Lee! In fact, there were 4 mistakes. The newsreader should have said: …news is just in; a group
of tourists were bitten... Rabies is a serious threat; everybody is in hospital.
In English, singular subjects usually take singular verbs, and plural subjects take plural verbs.
My brother lives in Moscow, but my sisters live in St Petersburg
But some subjects can be tricky. Firstly, indefinite pronouns like everybody, and everything have a
plural meaning, but take singular verbs. Listen:
Everybody is in hospital… nobody is safe
What's more, some nouns which end in -s are actually singular, like news, mathematics, physics,
diabetes and rabies. Listen:
Today’s news is that rabies is on the increase.
But, words like people, children, data and media need a plural verb even though they don’t end in –s.
The media have collected more data
Now a collective noun like family, team, government and group can be singular or plural, since we can
view it as a single group, or as a collection of individuals. We can say:
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Grammar Challenge bbclearningenglish.com
BBC Learning English 2008
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The team has worked well this year
Or:
The team have promised to work harder this year
So with this example:
A group of tourists were bitten by a stray dog
Each tourist was bitten individually. The dog didn't bite them all together in one big bite!
So to sum up: indefinite pronouns like everybody and nothing, take singular verbs. Some nouns which
end with –s, like news and diabetes – are actually single. Other words like data and media are plural,
and collective nouns like government and group can be single or plural.
Ok, that's all from me: good luck with your grammar challenge!
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Grammar Challenge bbclearningenglish.com
BBC Learning English 2008
Page 3 of 3
Grammar Tables: Subject - verb agreement 2: Singular and plural verbs
Indefinite pronouns like everybody and anyone, take singular verbs. Some nouns which end with –s,
like news, maths and diabetes– are actually single. Other words like data and media are plural, and
collective nouns like team, government and group can be single or plural.
Rule Some nouns which
follow this rule
Example sentence
Some indefinite pronouns
have plural meanings, but
take singular verbs
everybody, anyone,
everything Everybody is in hospital
Some nouns which end with
–s are singular
mathematics, physics,
rabies, diabetes, news Rabies is on the increase
Some nouns which don't end
with –s are plural
people, children, data,
media The media have collected more data
Some collective nouns can
be singular and plural
family, team, police,
group, government, jury
The jury has found the defendant guilty
The jury are having am
