The subject and verb of a sentence must agree in number. You cannot have a singular subject (such as “I”) with a plural form (such as “were”).
We look at there main rules in an effort to correct a recurring problem.
Third Person Singular Must End in -S
We often hear people say things like, “He go to Hughes,” but that is non-standard. Instead, it should be, “He goes to Hughes.”
Almost Always We Change “Be”
Sometimes, people say, “We be at the mall,” and that’s non-standard.
A corellary of this rule deals with “was/were”, which are the past tense forms of “be”. Often “was” is substuted for “were”. When this happens end up with anomolies such as “They was at the mall.”
The key to understanding this is remembering the conjugation chart for “be” in past tense.
| I was | we were |
| you were | you were |
| he/she/it was | they were |
The shape of “were” resembles a key.
Beware of prepositional phrases
Very often, a prepositional phrase appears between the subject and the verb. If the sentence subject and the object of the preposition are of different numbers, this can lead to subject-verb disagreement.
- The ruler of all the counties is coming.
- Those lamps on the table were expensive.