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As most SAT prep books we reviewed as well as SAT prep courses say, when preparing for the SAT® Writing Section, one of the most commonly tested topics is subject-verb agreement. As the name suggests, the "subject" and the "verb" must be in "agreement". In other words, if the subject is singular (the person, place or thing is just one), then there should be a singular verb used in the sentence. On the other hand, if the subject is plural (the person, place or thing is more than one), then there should be a plural verb used in the sentence.
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Example #1:
- Singular: Tom is a dentist that sees many patients.
- Explanation: The person "Tom" is a singular subject. The verb "is" is used as a singular verb in this example.
- Plural: Tom and Jerry are classmates from dental school.
- Explanation: The person "Tom" and the person "Jerry" count as TWO people, which is more than ONE, so together it is a plural subject. The verb "are" is used as a plural verb in this example.
Example #2:
- Singular: A good student needs to practice writing and grammar rules every day.
- Explanation: The subject "A good student" is a singular subject. The verb "needs" is used as a singular verb in this example.
- Plural: The bad students need to spend more time practicing writing grammatically correct sentences.
- Explanation: The subject "The bad students", indicates more than ONE, so it is a plural subject. The verb "needs" is used as a plural verb in this example.
Using Collective Nouns
On the SAT® Writing and Language Test, students often mistake the correct subject-verb agreement rule when writing sentences using collective nouns. What are collective nouns?
Collective nouns are nouns that denote a group of individuals such as "assembly", "family", or "crew".