10 Subject-Verb Agreement Errors in English

Which is correct? My jeans was ripped or my jeans were ripped? The word jeans ends in S, but it's one thing, one item, so is it singular or plural? Keep watching to find out the correct answer, or post it in the comments if you already know. Today, I'm teaching you 10 common mistakes that even advanced English learners make with subject-verb agreement. That simply means using the right verb form depending on whether the subject is singular or plural. You can download my full guide to tricky subject-verb agreement, including a quiz, by clicking on the link in the video description. The first mistake is saying people is. The correct way is people are. Person is the singular and people is plural, so we say people are tired not people is tired. The next mistake is saying everyone are ready. It's incorrect. The correct way is everyone is ready. Words like everyone or everybody, someone or somebody, anyone or anybody, and no one and nobody are all grammatically singular. Yes, even though everyone and everybody refer to multiple people, they take the singular form of the verb. Everyone is ready. Our next mistake is this. A number of employees is absent. Instead, we need to say a number of employees are absent. Anything starting with a number of is always going to be plural. A number of students, a number of houses, a number of people, a number of children. They all take the plural form of the verb. Here's an even trickier case. Don't say, most of the population are poor. That's incorrect. The correct sentence is, most of the population is poor. After words like most of, half of, and some of, the next word is what determines whether it's singular or plural. So we say, some of the furniture, singular, is broken. Some of the chairs, plural, are broken. None of the food, singular, is healthy. None of the snacks, plural, are healthy. Mistake number five is saying there's many reasons. That's not correct. We need to say there are many reasons. There's is short for there is, and that's singular. There's one reason, but there are many reasons. Our next mistake is saying each of the students have a book. It's not correct. The correct way is each of the students has a book. Each is always singular because it refers to each student individually. Each of the students has a book. Each of the students is studying for the test. Each of the students was given an assignment, not were given an assignment. Our next mistake is super common among English learners, and that is saying one of my friends live downtown. Instead, we need to say one of my friends lives downtown. The subject is one, one of my friends lives downtown. So one is singular, and it takes a singular verb. This next one is different depending on whether you speak American English or British English. In American English, we don't say my family are coming to visit. Instead we say my family is coming to visit. In American English, collective nouns like family and team are usually treated as singular. So we say my team is winning, not my team are winning. Our next mistake is saying, the list of items are too long. That's not correct, because the subject is list, singular, not items. So we need to say, the list of items is too long. A similar thing happens with the word group. Group is singular. So we say the group of students is here, not the group of students are here. Our final mistake is saying the bed and couch is very comfortable. That's not correct. We need to say the bed and couch are very comfortable. Even though bed is singular and couch is singular, the subject is both of them. Two things, bed and couch. So we say the bed and couch are very comfortable. Now let's go back to the example at the beginning. My jeans was ripped or my jeans were ripped. Items like jeans, pants, shorts, glasses, and scissors take a plural verb. So we say, my jeans were ripped. My glasses are old. These scissors are new. Even though it's just one item, grammatically it takes a plural verb. Now you know how to avoid some of the most common mistakes with subject-verb agreement. Your next step is to download the PDF guide and try the quiz inside by clicking on the link in the video description. In my many years as a teacher, I've collected over 200 of the most common errors that English learners make, and I've made them easy to learn inside my course. From grammar errors to vocabulary mistakes and pronunciation problems, this course will help you find and fix your errors fast. Click on the link to learn more about the 200 Common Errors course and join it so that So that you can speak English confidently, without mistakes.