Verb Tense and Agreement
Verb Tense
Verbs can be in the present tense, present progressive tense, past tense, past progressive, present perfect, or past perfect. It’s important to understand tense because you want to be consistent with your verb tenses in your writing. It’s a common mistake to shift tenses without realizing it. This discussion of tenses can increase your “tense awareness,” which will lead to fewer errors.
Let’s take the verb to eat as an example and see how it looks in the different tenses with the subject I.
| Tense | Example |
|---|---|
| present tense (present point in time) | I eat dinner. |
| present progressive (present action of limited duration) | I am eating dinner. |
| past tense (specific point in the past) | I ate dinner yesterday. |
| past progressive (past action of limited duration) | I was eating. |
| present perfect (completed action from a point in the past ending at or near present) | I have eaten dinner. |
| past perfect (past action completed before another action also in the past) | I had just eaten dinner when the phone rang. |
When it comes to verb tenses, it’s important to be consistent and to be aware of any shifts. If you shift, there needs to be a reason for the shift.
Irregular Verbs
The most troublesome thing about English verbs is that many are “irregular.”
Regular verbs change to past tense by adding “d” or “ed.” For example:
walk → walked
type → typed
dance → danced
But irregular verbs change in irregular ways. For example:
sell → sold
is → was
think → thought
The best way to learn about irregular verbs is simply to get familiar with them. Read through the list below, and notice any verbs which have caused you problems in the past:
| Present → Past | Present → Past | Present → Past |
| be → was, were | give → gave | sell → sold |
| become → became | go → went | send → sent |
| begin → began | grow → grew | set → set |
| blow → blew | have → had | shake → shook |
| break → broke | hear → heard | shine → shone (shined) |
| bring → brought | hide → hid | shrink → shrank (shrunk) |
| build → built | hold → held | sing → sang |
| burst → burst | hurt → hurt | sit → sat |
| buy → bought | keep → kept | sleep → slept |
| catch → caught | know → knew | speak → spoke |
| choose → chose | lay → laid | spend → spent |
| come → came | lead → led | spring → sprang |
| cut → cut | leave → left | stand → stood |
| dive → dove (dived) | let → let | steal → stole |
| do → did | lose → lost | strike → struck |
| draw → drew | make → made | swim → swam |
| drink → drank | mean → meant | swing → swung |
| drive → drove | meet → met | take → took |
| eat → ate | pay → paid | teach → taught |
| fall → fell | put → put | tear → tore |
| feed → fed | quit → quit | tell → told |
| feel → felt | read → read | think → thought |
| fight → fought | ride → rode | throw → threw |
| find → found | ring → rang | understand → understood |
| fly → flew | rise → rose | wake → woke |
| forget → forgot | run → ran | wear → wore |
| forgive → forgave | say → said | win → won |
| freeze → froze | see → saw | wind → wound |
| get → got | seek → sought |
Exercise 1
Exercise 2 – Verb Tenses
Subject-Verb Agreement
The verb of a sentence must agree with the simple subject of the sentence in number and person. Number refers to whether a word is singular (child, account, city, I) or plural (children, accounts, cities, we). Person refers to whether the word denotes a speaker (I, we are first person), the person spoken to (you is second person), or what is spoken of (he, she, it, they; Gary, college, taxes are third person). See Pronouns, Point of View, and Academic Writing for more on this.
Put simply, a singular subject belongs with a singular verb, and a plural subject belongs with a plural verb. For example:
Singular: The cat jumps over the fence.
Plural: The cats jump over the fence.
Here are some tips to help you avoid subject-verb agreement errors.
- When the subject of a sentence is composed of two or more nouns or pronouns connected by and, use a plural verb. Ex: “Suzy and her friend are missing the best movie ever!”
- When the subject of a sentence is composed of two or more nouns or pronouns connected by or, use a singular verb. Ex: “The pen or pencil is in the drawer.”
- Do not be confused by a phrase that comes between your subject and your verb. Ex: “Russell Wilson, as well as the rest of the Seattle Seahawks, is ready for the game against the Green Bay Packers.”
- Collective nouns can be tricky. Sometimes, they take a singular verb, and sometimes they take a plural verb. It depends upon how they are being used. Read more about Collective Nouns for additional information and examples.
- Fractions can be especially tricky, but the rule is that fractions should be treated as singular or plural, depending upon the noun they are referring to.
Ex. 1: “Two-thirds of the zombies in “The Walking Dead” move slowly. The rest can apparently sprint.” (“Zombies” is plural, so you use “move.”)
Ex. 2: “Two-thirds of your cake was eaten before you got home. (“Cake” is singular, so you use “was.”)
Errors in subject-verb agreement are common, especially when the subject of the sentence is separated from the verb by other words. One way to avoid that problem is to cross out prepositional phrases and dependent clauses. Why? So it is easier to see the subjects and verbs. Subjects and verbs never appear in a prepositional phrase or a dependent clause.
For example, the prepositional phrases have been crossed out here:
The students with the best grades win the academic awards.
The puppy under the table is my favorite.
That makes it easy to identify the subjects (“students,” “puppy”) and the verbs (“win,” “is”).
Dependent clauses that separate the subject and verb have been crossed out here:
The car that I bought has power steering and a sunroof.
The representatives who are courteous sell the most tickets.
That makes it easier to see the subjects (“car,” “representatives”) and the verbs (“has,” “sell”). And it makes it very easy to see that the subjects and verbs agree in number.
Exercise 3
Exercise 4 – Subject Verb Agreement 1
Exercise 5 – Subject Verb Agreement 2
Key Concepts: Verb Tense and Agreement
- Be Consistent with Verb Tense
Writers should avoid unnecessary shifts in verb tense within a sentence or paragraph. Stay in the same tense unless there’s a clear reason to shift. For example, if you begin a story in the past tense, continue in the past unless you are describing something that happens in the present or future. - Understand Common Verb Tenses
Mastering the six main verb tenses helps you describe time relationships clearly in writing. Here are examples using the verb to eat with the subject I:- Present tense: I eat dinner.
- Present progressive: I am eating dinner.
- Past tense: I ate dinner yesterday.
- Past progressive: I was eating dinner when the call came.
- Present perfect: I have eaten dinner already.
- Past perfect: I had eaten dinner before the movie started.
- Match the Verb to the Subject in Number and Person
A singular subject needs a singular verb; a plural subject needs a plural verb. Watch for tricky sentence structures where the subject and verb are separated by prepositional phrases or dependent clauses.
Example:- The teacher assigns homework. (singular subject and verb)
- The students complete the assignment. (plural subject and verb)
- Watch for Agreement in Special Cases
Be careful with compound subjects, indefinite pronouns, collective nouns, and subjects joined by “either/or” or “neither/nor.” The verb must agree with the subject closest to it.
Exercise 6 – Final Check
- “Verb Tense,” “Subject-Verb Agreement,” and Exercise 3 can be found at Excelsior Online Writing Lab (OWL). This site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-4.0 International License.
- “Exercise 1” and “Irregular Verbs” are from 1. 2. 3. Write by Gay Monteverde and licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
