Agreement Quick Rules

Some agreement rules trip everyone up — is it the team is or the team are? Here are the quick reminders for the words that catch people out. This is a page to check against in a hurry, not a lesson: each reminder points to the article that explains it properly, so you can grab the fix and move on. The core rule itself — matching a verb to its subject — lives in When Words Need to Match.

The trap spots

• Collective nouns (team, class, family, group, band) — when the group acts as one, use a singular verb: the team is winning. British English lets you use are when you mean the individual people (the team are arguing), but is is always safe. → Notional Concord
• Indefinite pronouns (everyone, someone, each, nobody, either, neither) — these look like crowds but count as one, so they take a singular verb: everyone is here, each has a partner.
• Interrupting phrases (as well as, along with, together with, including) — ignore the extra bit and match the verb to the real subject: the teacher, along with the students, is ready. → Attraction Errors
• Subjects joined by and — two things joined by and are plural: Sam and Priya are here. But joined by or, match the nearer one: Sam or the twins are coming. → Compound Subjects
• There is / there are — match the verb to what comes after it: there is one biscuit, there are three biscuits. (Even though there's slips out in speech, write there are for plurals.)

The one-second test

When you are unsure, strip the subject down to a single word and swap in it or they: the team (it) is; Sam and Priya (they) are. If it fits, go singular; if they fits, go plural. That covers most agreement wobbles in a single check.

Two more worth a glance

• Titles and names of works are singular even if they sound plural: The Avengers is a great film, Maths is my favourite.
• Amounts and distances treated as one lump take a singular verb: Ten pounds is a lot, Two miles is a long way.

Quick fixes: wrong to right

The trap spots above turn up as the same handful of slips. Here they are as corrections you can pattern-match against your own writing:

• ✗ Everyone are ready. → ✓ Everyone is ready.
• ✗ Each of the boys were late. → ✓ Each of the boys was late.
• ✗ The team are winning (meaning as one) → ✓ The team is winning.
• ✗ The teacher, as well as the pupils, were pleased. → ✓ …was pleased.
• ✗ There's three left. → ✓ There are three left.

Fix the verb to match the real subject and the sentence lands right.

Where next

• Agreement — the young-learner hub — the bigger map this sits inside
• When Words Need to Match — the core subject–verb rule
• Compound Subjects (and / or) — subjects joined together
• Attraction Errors (as well as, along with) — the words that mislead the verb
• Notional Concord (team is / are) — one group, one verb or two?