Lesson 7 of 58 beginner

Subject-Verb Agreement & Common Grammar Mistakes

The Rules That Separate Band 6 from Band 7

Open interactive version (quiz + challenge)

Real-world analogy

Subject-verb agreement is like a dance partnership. The subject leads, and the verb must follow its rhythm. A singular subject (the government) needs a singular verb (decides). A plural subject (the governments) needs a plural verb (decide). When the music gets complicated — with phrases between subject and verb, or tricky subjects like 'everyone' — many dancers lose the beat. IELTS examiners are watching your footwork closely.

What is it?

Subject-verb agreement means the verb must match the subject in number — singular subjects need singular verbs, plural subjects need plural verbs. Beyond this fundamental rule, IELTS candidates commonly lose marks on grammar mistakes including misplaced modifiers, faulty parallel structure, double negatives, and errors with indefinite pronouns. Eliminating these mistakes is often the fastest path from Band 6 to Band 7.

Real-world relevance

An IELTS tutor analyzed 200 Writing Task 2 essays and found that subject-verb agreement errors appeared in 73% of Band 6 essays but only 12% of Band 7+ essays. The three most common errors were: (1) 'The number of people are increasing' (should be 'is'), (2) 'Everyone have their own opinion' (should be 'has'), and (3) 'There is many factors' (should be 'are'). Fixing just these three patterns helped multiple students jump from 6.0 to 6.5 or 7.0.

Key points

Basic Agreement: Singular & Plural — Singular subjects take singular verbs: 'The student studies hard.' Plural subjects take plural verbs: 'The students study hard.' The confusing part: in English, adding -s to a noun makes it plural (students), but adding -s to a verb makes it singular (studies). This is the opposite of most languages and causes frequent IELTS errors.
Tricky Subject: The Number vs A Number — 'The number of students HAS increased' (singular — 'the number' is the subject). 'A number of students HAVE enrolled' (plural — 'a number of' means 'several/many'). This specific pair appears constantly in IELTS Writing Task 1 when describing statistics. Getting it wrong is one of the most noticeable errors for examiners.
Words Between Subject and Verb — Phrases between the subject and verb do NOT change agreement: 'The quality of the products IS high' (not 'are' — 'quality' is the subject, not 'products'). 'Students in the advanced class PERFORM well' (not 'performs'). This trap catches many candidates when prepositional phrases interrupt the subject-verb connection.
Indefinite Pronouns — Always singular: everyone, everybody, everything, someone, somebody, something, anyone, anybody, anything, no one, nobody, nothing, each, every. 'Everyone HAS a responsibility' (NOT have). 'Each student IS required to...' (NOT are). 'Nobody KNOWS the answer' (NOT know). These are some of the most frequently tested grammar points in IELTS.
Collective Nouns — Words like government, team, family, committee, audience, and staff can be singular or plural depending on context. British English (used in IELTS) often treats them as plural: 'The government have decided...' American English uses singular: 'The government has decided...' Both are acceptable in IELTS, but be consistent throughout your essay.
There Is / There Are — 'There IS a problem' (singular noun follows). 'There ARE several problems' (plural noun follows). The verb agrees with the noun that comes AFTER it, not with 'there'. Common error: 'There is many reasons...' should be 'There are many reasons...' This structure appears frequently in IELTS Writing and Speaking.
Common Grammar Mistake: Double Negatives — In standard English, double negatives are incorrect: 'I do not have nothing' (wrong) should be 'I do not have anything' or 'I have nothing'. Similarly, avoid 'hardly never' (use 'hardly ever') and 'cannot barely' (use 'can barely'). While some dialects use double negatives, they are marked as errors in IELTS.
Common Mistake: Misplaced Modifiers — A modifier should be next to the word it describes. 'Walking to school, the rain started' (wrong — the rain was not walking). Correct: 'Walking to school, I got caught in the rain.' Or: 'While I was walking to school, the rain started.' Misplaced and dangling modifiers confuse meaning and reduce your IELTS grammar score.
Common Mistake: Parallel Structure — Items in a list must be the same grammatical form. Wrong: 'The government should invest in education, improving healthcare, and to create jobs.' Right: 'The government should invest in education, improve healthcare, and create jobs.' (All base verbs.) Parallel structure errors are especially common in IELTS Task 2 body paragraphs.

Code example

SUBJECT-VERB AGREEMENT — RULES & EXAMPLES
===========================================

BASIC RULE:
  Singular subject → singular verb:   The student works hard.
  Plural subject → plural verb:       The students work hard.

THE NUMBER vs A NUMBER (IELTS Task 1 essential):
  The number of tourists HAS increased.    (singular)
  A number of tourists HAVE visited.       (plural)

INTERRUPTING PHRASES (ignore them!):
  The quality of the results IS impressive.
  Students in the program HAVE excelled.
  The cost of living in major cities HAS risen.

INDEFINITE PRONOUNS (always singular):
  Everyone HAS a responsibility.
  Each of the students IS required to attend.
  Nobody KNOWS the exact figure.
  Something NEEDS to be done.

THERE IS / THERE ARE:
  There IS a significant difference.       (singular)
  There ARE several factors to consider.   (plural)

PARALLEL STRUCTURE:
  WRONG: She likes reading, to swim, and cooking.
  RIGHT: She likes reading, swimming, and cooking.

  WRONG: The plan aims to reduce costs, improving
         efficiency, and to increase revenue.
  RIGHT: The plan aims to reduce costs, improve
         efficiency, and increase revenue.

COMMON TRAPS:
  WRONG: The government have not made no progress.
  RIGHT: The government has not made any progress.
  WRONG: Hardly no one attended the meeting.
  RIGHT: Hardly anyone attended the meeting.

Line-by-line walkthrough

1. This reference covers subject-verb agreement rules and common grammar mistakes that affect IELTS scores.
2. BASIC RULE: Singular subjects pair with singular verbs (-s ending), plural subjects pair with plural verbs (no -s ending).
3. THE NUMBER vs A NUMBER: Critical for IELTS Task 1 — 'the number' is always singular, 'a number of' is always plural.
4. INTERRUPTING PHRASES: Words between subject and verb are distractors — 'The quality of the results IS impressive' because 'quality' is the true subject.
5. INDEFINITE PRONOUNS: Everyone, each, nobody, something are ALWAYS singular — 'Everyone has' not 'Everyone have'.
6. THERE IS/ARE: The verb agrees with the noun that follows, not with 'there' — 'There are several factors' not 'There is several factors'.
7. PARALLEL STRUCTURE: Lists must use the same grammatical form — all gerunds, all infinitives, or all base verbs.
8. COMMON TRAPS: Double negatives and other frequent errors that are automatically penalized in IELTS writing.

Spot the bug

The number of international students who studies in the UK have risen dramatically over the past decade. Each of the universities have developed their own recruitment strategies. A number of factors is responsible for this trend, including the quality of education, which attract students from around the world. There is also many scholarships available, and everyone are encouraged to apply.

Need a hint?

Focus on subject-verb agreement — check every verb against its TRUE subject, ignoring phrases in between.

Show answer

Errors: 1) 'who studies' → 'who study' (relative pronoun 'who' refers to plural 'students'). 2) 'have risen' → 'has risen' ('the number' is singular). 3) 'Each of the universities have' → 'has' (each is always singular). 4) 'A number of factors is' → 'are' ('a number of' is plural). 5) 'which attract' → 'which attracts' ('which' refers to singular 'quality'). 6) 'There is also many' → 'There are also many' (plural 'scholarships'). 7) 'everyone are' → 'everyone is' (everyone is always singular).

Explain like I'm 5

Imagine you have one dog and it BARKS. Now you have two dogs and they BARK. See how the verb changes? When there is one thing doing something, the verb gets an 's' at the end (the cat sits, the bird flies). When there are many things, the verb loses the 's' (the cats sit, the birds fly). It is like a seesaw — when the noun goes up (gets an s), the verb goes down (loses the s), and when the noun goes down, the verb goes up!

Fun fact

In Old English (before 1100 AD), verbs had different endings for almost every person: I singe, thou singest, he singeth, we singath. Modern English simplified this dramatically — we only change the verb for third-person singular (he/she/it sings). Yet this one remaining rule still causes more IELTS grammar errors than almost anything else!

Hands-on challenge

Find and correct all grammar errors in this paragraph: 'The number of people who uses public transport have increased significantly. Everyone agree that the government need to invest more in infrastructure. There is several reasons for this trend. A number of studies has shown that public transport reduce pollution. Each of the cities surveyed have their own challenges, and hardly no one is satisfied with the current system. The team of researchers are publishing their findings next month.'

More resources

Subject-Verb Agreement (British Council)
Grammar for IELTS Band 7 (IELTS Liz)
Common IELTS Grammar Mistakes (E2 IELTS)
English Grammar in Use (Cambridge English)

Open interactive version (quiz + challenge) ← Back to course: IELTS Mastery