Subject/Verb Agreement Tops My Pet Peeve List

If you check the topic index over to the right, you will notice that I now have 24!! postings about subject/verb agreement. Writers just can't seem to keep this one straight. Here is another example from the local newspaper this week:



Land donations, such as the one from Shelby Farms, helps the university keep the swamp from becoming useless for research.



Here is the process for getting your subject/verb agreement straight.

1) Determine the subject of the sentence. In this case, it is "donations." That is plural and ends in "s."



2) Determine the verb of the sentence. HINT: That is the action the subject is doing. In this case, the donations are helping, so the verb is "helps." Notice that the phrase "such as the one from Shelby Farms" is inserted between the subject and the verb but doesn't affect their relationship.



3) Check to see if the subject and the verb AGREE with each other. In most cases, if the subject ends in "s" as it does here, the verb should NOT end in "s." DONATIONS HELP...ONE DONATION HELPS.



The sentence should read as follows:



Land donations, such as the one from Shelby Farms, help the university keep the swamp from becoming useless for research.