Subject–Verb Agreement

The core idea

Subject-verb agreement just means the verb's form has to match who or what the subject is. English doesn't mark this much — most of the time the verb looks exactly the same no matter who's doing the action. There's really only one place beginners need to watch closely: the present simple, where he, she and it change the verb, and nothing else does.

Get comfortable with a handful of patterns — I/you/we/they + plain verb, he/she/it + verb-s, and the verb be, which changes for almost everyone — and agreement stops being something you have to think about.

I/you/we/they + the plain verb

With I, you, we and they, the main verb stays in its plain, dictionary form — no ending added: "I work downtown." "They live nearby." "We start at nine."

This is the form most learners default to, and it's correct for four out of the six subject types — the exception is he/she/it, covered next.

He/she/it + verb-s

With he, she or it, the present simple verb takes an -s (or -es after certain endings): "He works downtown." "She watches the news every night." "It rains a lot here in spring."

This -s is the one piece of present-simple agreement that actually shows up in English — miss it, and "He work downtown" sounds clearly wrong to a fluent speaker, even though every word is spelled correctly.

The verb be: am, is, are

Be doesn't follow the plain-verb-vs-verb-s pattern at all — it has its own forms: I am, he/she/it is, you/we/they are. "I am ready." "She is at work." "They are on vacation."

Because be changes for more subjects than any other verb, it's worth memorizing these three forms on their own rather than trying to fit them into the -s rule above.

Do/does and don't/doesn't — the main verb stays plain

Do and does (and their negatives, don't and doesn't) follow the same he/she/it split: I/you/we/they + do/don't, he/she/it + does/doesn't. "Do you work Saturdays?" "Does she work Saturdays?" "I don't work Saturdays." "He doesn't work Saturdays."

Once do or does is doing the agreement job, the main verb goes back to its plain form — no extra -s: "Does he work here?" not "Does he works here?" The -s only ever appears once.

A few high-frequency exceptions worth knowing early

A handful of everyday words don't follow the pattern you'd expect from their spelling. People takes are, not is, even though it doesn't end in -s: "People are waiting outside." Everyone and everybody take is, even though they clearly mean more than one person: "Everyone is here." News takes is, not are, even though it ends in -s: "The news is good today."

There's also there is (singular) and there are (plural), which match whatever comes right after them: "There is a message for you." "There are two messages for you."

One small note for later: a word for a group, like team or family, usually takes a singular verb in American English ("The team is winning"), but British English often treats it as plural ("The team are winning") when talking about the individual members. American English is the default in this lesson.

Real English

Watch out

Practice

Quick challenge

Five mixed questions to check what stuck.

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