English Grammar Class 8 Agreement of Verb and Subject

In today’s lesson, we will discuss the important topic of grammar, agreement of verbs and subjects. In simple words, the subject must agree with the verb in terms of number and person. The concept has been explained in detail in the current lesson. The rules to be followers to make the verb agree with the subject have been discussed along with illustrations. Practice questions and solved examples are given throughout the article for better understanding and concept clarity. Let’s begin the journey on this great topic.

Grammar

Subject-Verb Agreement

Subject-Verb Agreement

• The verb in a sentence must agree in number and person with its subject involved.

• The rules according to the tenses to make subject-verb agreement has been explained in the following passages.

Subject-Verb Agreement

Rules to follow for Subject-Verb Agreement: 

1. If the subject is in singular/ plural form, then the verb should also be in the singular /plural form respectively.

For example, he is a good student.

For example, they are good students.

2. If the sentence is in the first person, then the verbs are used without any suffixes. 

For example, We go to school.

3. When the sentence is in the third person singular, singular verbs are used. 

For example, He goes to school every day.

4. When the sentence is in the third person plural, plural verbs are used.

 For example, They go to school every day.

5. When the subject is in the present tense, third person singular, most English verbs end in “s” or “es” but there are no “s” or “es” in the third person plural.

For example, He goes to the office.

They go to the office.

6. There are a few exceptions to this rule. This includes the verb ‘be’ and its forms.

For example, He is a teacher.

I am your teacher.

They are teachers.

7. The auxiliary verbs, can, must, may and ought to, shall don’t have ‘s’ or ‘es’ with either singular or plural.

For example, He shall attend the party.

They shall attend the party.

8. The suffix “f” or “es” that are third person singular is added to verbs that end with ‘y’ and have a consonant before the ‘y’.

For example, Sam relies on his parents.

Sheels flies a plane.

9. If the subject is in the plural but is represented by a unit or a single figure. In this case, it is considered a singular verb. 

For example, a hundred miles is a good goal to be achieved.

10. If the subject of the sentence consists of two or more nouns or pronouns connected by the conjunction, and. The plural verbs have to be used. 

For example, the student and teacher meet every day for class.

11. If the sentence consists of two or more singular nouns or pronouns and is connected by "or" or "nor," then a singular verb has to be used.

For example, the students can use a pen or a pencil.

12. If the sentence consists of the words, "each" "each one" "somebody" "someone" "no one" "either" "neither" "everyone" "everybody" "anybody", and "nobody" singular verbs have to be used, as these are singular. 

For example, each of us is responsible for the deteriorating environment.

13. Uncountable words are usually considered singular and singular verbs are to be used. 

For example, Health is important.

Difficult words with  Meanings

Practice Questions

Question

Fill in the blanks with the correct verb forms below

1. He ___ to the play.

2. She ___ ginger tea.

3. The children ___ to play football.

4. The kids ___ to play in the auditorium.

5. He ___ the doctor.

6. They ___ soccer.

7. Sam ___ on the track every day.

8. Soni ___ daily.

9. Shiksha ___ hard for her living.

10. She ___ poems.

Answer

Fill in the blanks with the correct verb forms below

1. He goes to the play.

2. She loves ginger tea.

3. The children love to play football.

4. The kids love to play in the auditorium.

5. He plays the doctor.

6. They play soccer.

7. Sam runs on the track every day.

8. Soni exercises daily.

9. Shiksha works hard for her living.

10. She writes poems.

Benefits of Learning Agreement of Verb and Subject for Class 8

• The importance of subject-verb agreement in English grammar is immense. The subject-verb agreement makes a sentence easy to understand by unifying all the components of the sentence (Subject, verb, object).

• A sentence without the subject-verb agreement will be grammatically incorrect and won’t express a proper idea of the sentence. 

Examples of Subject Verb Agreement Class 8

Identify the correct sentence: 

1. David don’t like ice cream.

2. David Doesn’t like ice cream.

Ans: Here, option A is incorrect as “don’t” is never used with the third person singular number subject.

1. Ron and Harry are best friends.

2. Ron and Harry is best friends.

Ans: Here, option B is incorrect, as the verb “is” is never used with a plural number subject.

Facts of Subject Verb Agreement Class 8

• Subjects and verbs in a sentence must align with the number. The plural subject needs plural verb/verbs, and the singular subject needs singular verb/verbs.

• Always place the subject after the verb if the sentence starts with “here” or “there”. For example, “Here are the books I read yesterday.”

• In interrogative sentences, subjects are not always placed before the verb. For example, Where is your mother?

• The verb must be plural if there are two subjects joined by “and”.

• If the words like “no”, “each”, and “every” are placed before the subject in a sentence, the verb must be in the singular form.

• If the subjects in the sentence are all singular and connected by the conjunctions like “nor”, “or”, “not only/but also”, “either/or”, or “neither/nor”, the verb of that sentence will be in the singular form. If the subjects in the sentence are all plural and connected by the conjunctions like “nor”, “or”, “not only/but also”, “either/or”, or “neither/nor”, the verb of that sentence will be in the plural form.

• In the case of collective nouns, the subjects can be plural or singular, but in most cases, the collective nouns are in singular forms as these nouns express a single collective form.

• The titles of novels, movies, and books are always in the singular form and placed with singular verbs. For example, Minions is my favourite animated movie.

Important Topics of NCERT Subject Verb Agreement

In this chapter, we will learn about the following topics:

• What is subject verb agreement?

• What is the importance of learning subject verb agreement?

• What are the subject verb agreement rules?

Class 8 NCERT Subject Verb Agreement Free PDF Download

• For more explanations of this chapter, download the free PDF from our website. This agreement of verb and subject for Class 8 PDF is all you need for your child to learn the chapter with easy explanation.

• The PDF is made short and informative, so your child can easily grasp the chapter and utilise it to make their English school projects.

Our subject experts designed all the English grammar chapters for all the classes of NCERT with great care and in an informative and interesting way. If your kids are struggling to understand the English chapters, visit our website to get them our free study materials which are super helpful and easy to learn. 

Summary

In this chapter, we started with the concept of the agreement between the subject and the verb. We learned the rules that are to be followed while using a subject and a verb. The use of subject-verb agreement is essential for the sentence's structure. The standards that must be observed when utilising a subject and a verb must be adhered to at all costs. This facilitates the reader's understanding of the meaning that is being conveyed. One can distinguish and comprehend how to use the plural and singular verbs, with only a few deviations for the first-person and third-person usage in the sentence.