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The subject and verb of a sentence must agree in number—singular subject and singular verb or plural subject and plural verb.
Because of inexperienced workers and old equipment, the costs to build the assemblies is increasing.
Even when a word or phrase comes between the subject and verb, they must agree. The plural subject "costs" requires a plural verb. Or, the singular verb "is" requires a singular subject.
Because of inexperienced workers and old equipment, the costs to build the assemblies are increasing.
Because of inexperienced workers and old equipment, the cost to build the assemblies is increasing.
Errors in agreement also can result from using the wrong verb form with a compound subject. When two or more subjects are joined by "and," they usually take a plural verb, even if one or more of the subjects is singular.
The Fahrenheit scale of temperature and the mercury thermometer was invented by Daniel Fahrenheit in 1714.
The Fahrenheit scale of temperature and the mercury thermometer were invented by Daniel Fahrenheit in 1714.
When the subject of the sentence is an indefinite pronoun, it usually takes a singular verb. Indefinite pronouns do not refer to any specific person or thing.
Nearly 300 years later, everyone in this country is affected by Fahrenheit’s invention.
When an indefinite pronoun functions as an adjective preceding a compound subject, the sentence uses a singular verb.
Each observation and experiment toward developing a thermometer was reported in a paper Fahrenheit wrote in 1734.
Some collective nouns can take either a singular or plural verb, depending on the meaning. When the collective noun refers to the group as a single entity, use a singular verb.
The research team has reported its experimental results in the next issue of Science.
When the group’s members are being considered as individuals, use a plural verb.
The research team have reported differing versions of their research.
A common subject–verb agreement error results from making a linking verb agree with the complement rather than the subject of the sentence.
An important part of cattle breeding is clones developed from embryo splitting.
Clones, developed from embryo splitting, are an important part of cattle breeding.