The subject is what the sentence is about—the main idea—but in grammatical terms, the subject is who/what acts on the verb. If you can find the verb, you can find the subject.

These are the basic subject-verb agreement rules; for more complex rules, please see Writing Center staff or several handbooks available in the JCCC Writing Center.

SUBJECT–VERB AGREEMENT Subject–verb agreement in English is generally quite logical. Singular subjects take a singular verb, while plural subjects take a plural verb. Plural subjects …

Every verb in a sentence must have a subject. If the verb expresses action—like sneeze, jump, bark, or study—the subject is who or what is doing the action.

Being able to identify verbs and subjects will allow you to create complete and clear sentences; it will also help you understand other grammatical concepts like fragments and run-together …

Every complete sentence has two basic parts: a subject and a predicate. The complete subject includes all the words that tell whom or what the sentence is about.

3. The verb must agree with the subject closest to it if the subject has both a singular and plural noun or if the pronoun is connected with the conjunctions “or” or “nor.”