SAT Writing: Subject-Verb Agreement - The College Panda (2023)

Do you know how to conjugate the verb to match the subject in foreign languages? We have the same thing in English, and it can be complicated even though the simple cases seem so natural and obvious to us:

The subject is a noun (person, place, or thing) that is the "doer" or "main feature" of the sentence. A verb is an action word. Think of the simple sentences above and how awkward it would be to have verbs that don't agree with the subject. You don't even need to know the subject and verb of each sentence to know it's weird. Now the SAT won't make it so easy for you; they will intentionally try to trick your ear. Let's do an example:

investigations into the scandal (shows/show) much more than we want to know.

To choose the correct verb, we must first find the subject. Let's start by applying what we learned in the previous chapter and crossing out the prepositional phrases:

To look forin the scandal(shows/show) much more than we want to know.

What remains is the theme: investigations! Now, the second step is to ask yourself ifto look foris singular or plural. Well, it's plural because of thes, which means there's more than one. So we need the plural verbshow. And that's the whole process! Cross out the prepositional phrases and you can choose the subject of the remaining nouns. It is usually the closest remaining noun to the verb.

If you're ever unsure if a verb likeshowis singular or plural, test by puttingheytheyup front and then wonder which sounds more correct:

He shows...OThey teach...

With a little luck,They teach...sounds more correct to you, what does it meanshowis the plural form (sincetheyis obviously plural).

Let's try some harder ones. Note that in the example below, we strike out a prepositional phrase and a comma.

You might think the verb should be plural because the sentence mentions both jewelry and cards, but because of the comma sentence, the subject is just the jewelry.

Again, make sure you can identify thaterais singular whilethey wereit's plural. Everyone uses the correct form in simple conversation, but some students have difficulty identifying the correct form in a grammar test environment.

These last three examples show that the subject can come after the verb, something the SAT loves to do to trick students.

Another variation of the question you'll find deals with auxiliary verbs, which are needed to form certain tenses. Examples of auxiliary verbs are in bold below:

temto view
eraforgotten
eslooking
terstate

When you see these verb forms, it is the auxiliary verb that must agree with the subject.

Another question variation you might look for is one where the verb is in a sentence or clause that you would normally cross out. For example,

I visited my aunt, who (and they are) a panda guardian, earlier today.

Note that the underlined part is a comma. To find the subject if the verb is found in a sentence or clause like the one above, simply ask yourself what you are describing. In this case, the phrase obviously describesMy Aunt, which is unique. So we need the singular verbes.

I visited mytia, OMSesa panda guardian earlier today.

In Example 11, we have a relative clause that describescookies, which is plural.

Now let's look at a really complicated example that combines everything we've learned so far in this chapter:

Mastery of magic tricks that truly (surprises/surprise) the audience (requires / requires) a long time.

Here, we have to figure out the subjects of two verbs. Cross out the prepositional phrases and the relative clause:

Master's degreeof magic tricks that really (surprises/surprise) the audience(requires / requires) lotsof time.

Now it's easy to see thatMaster's degreeis the main subject of the sentence.Master's degreeis singular, so we need the singular verbrequires. After all, it's theMaster's degreethatrequiresa long time. But let's go back to the first verb, which is crossed out inside the relative clause, and ask what that relative clause describes. What really surprises the audience? Magic tricks!magic tricksis plural so we need the plural verbsurprise.

Mastery of magic tricks that reallysurprisethe audiencerequiresa long time.

Now, some more rules you should know:

Before moving on to the exercises, you probably have a few grammar rules in mind. Let's review some common mistakes students make when they start thinking about subjects and verbs. Note the following sentence:

He likes to enjoy R&B music instead of AC/DC.

On the SAT, you need to identify which words are verbs before checking your subjects. Some students mistakenly think thatto influenceyoscillatingare verbs in this sentence. Although,to influenceit's calledinfinitive(be, hate, run,...) yoscillatingit's calledgerund(running, cooking, exploding...). You've probably heard of infinitives in French or Spanish class, where it's the root of a verb before conjugating. It's the same in English. Infinitives and gerunds arenon-verbs, so there is no need to check subject-verb agreement. The only real verb in this example islikes. Again, gerunds and infinitives arenever verbs. Don't waste time checking your themes.

Finally, the SAT loves to add more than one verb in the same sentence. That way, one of the verbs can be buried deeper in the sentence to trick your ear. In these questions, divide the sentence into two and check if the two verbs agree.

In example 19, the seconderais unnecessary because the firsteraserves as an auxiliary verb for bothgoingytalking. If we removed all the details from the sentence, it would look like this:I was walking and talking..., which is a grammatically correct sentence.