Common Pronoun Mistakes: Subject-Verb Agreement
Pronouns can sometimes cause confusion when it comes to subject-verb agreement. Here are some common mistakes:
Indefinite Pronouns
- Singular: Everyone, someone, anyone, no one, everybody, somebody, anybody, nobody
- Plural: Both, few, many, several
- Incorrect: Everyone are happy.
- Correct: Everyone is happy.
- Incorrect: Few is going to the party.
- Correct: Few are going to the party.
Relative Pronouns
- Singular: Who, whom, which, that (when referring to a single person or thing)
- Plural: Who, whom, which, that (when referring to multiple people or things)
- Incorrect: The book, which is on the table, are interesting.
- Correct: The book, which is on the table, is interesting.
Collective Nouns
- Singular or plural: Depends on the context.
- Singular: The team is winning.
- Plural: The team are celebrating.
Practice Exercises:
- Everyone (is/are) happy.
- Few (is/are) going to the party.
- The book, which (is/are) on the table, (is/are) interesting.
- The team (is/are) winning.
- Neither you nor I (is/are) going.
Answers:
- is
- are
- is, is
- is
- are
Pronoun-Verb Agreement Practice
Identify the correct verb form in each sentence.
- Everyone (is/are) happy.
- Few (is/are) going to the party.
- The book, which (is/are) on the table, (is/are) interesting.
- The team (is/are) winning.
- Neither you nor I (is/are) going.
- Many (is/are) coming to the party.
- The people, who (is/are) waiting, (is/are) getting impatient.
- The class (is/are) studying hard.
- Neither you nor he (is/are) going.
- Both of them (is/are) coming.
Answers:
- is
- are
- is, is
- is
- are
- are
- are, are
- is
- is
- are
