What is Subject-Verb Agreement?

Subject-Verb Agreement simply means that the subject and verb in a sentence need to "agree." To do this, a singular subject needs a singular verb, and a plural subject needs a plural verb.

For example:

1. I need to earn $20/hour to pay my bills.
2. My cousin needs to earn only $11/hour to pay his bills.*
3. We need to earn about $50,000/year to support our family.

*Sentence #2 is the most problematic example for English language learners because 3rd person singular subjects require -s (or -es) on simple present tense verbs in order to make them agree.

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3rd Person Singular -s (-es)

	Singular	Plural
1st person	I walk to the store.	We walk to the store.
2nd person	You walk to the store.	You walk to the store.
3rd person	He/she/it walks to the store.	They walk to the store.

Add -s (or -es) to simple present tense verbs when the subject is 3rd person singular.

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