Subject-verb agreement is one of those things: if you don’t use it correctly, it may appear that you don’t know English.
How many times have you heard your students say something like this: “People in my class thinks that our teacher is cool” or “John and Mary is at the mall right now”? Yes, my friends, these are the sentences where the noun and the verb do not play nice together.
What is subject-verb agreement?
To put simply, in English a subject (the who or what of a sentence) must agree with the singular third person verb in simple present tense.
If this sounds too technical, take a look at the sentences above or consider this:
Singular:
First person – I
Second person – You
Third person – He/she/it; John, Mary, dog
Subject-verb agreement is also one of the more difficult aspects of the English language to master. Teaching this topic entails explanation not only of what it is but also relying on the fact that students actually know what a subject and a verb actually are.
Depending on your students’ first language, it may take longer for them to internalize it. For example, speakers of Asian languages typically have greater difficulty with it. Sometimes a student will have achieved great proficiency in English but will still omit the correct suffixes necessary for the verbs and subjects to agree. But all students need a lot of practice with it. And the best indicator for you that they are getting there is not only through a worksheet – which, we all know, anybody can complete – but through correct usage in their own speaking/writing.
How to teach it?
So I have created a short (about 10 minute or so) video, where I show how I teach subject-verb agreement to my ESL students. It starts with a short overview of the two parts of speech – a noun and a verb – and proceeds to list five important subject-verb agreement rules.
I have also created a short practice exercise that you can use after you introduced this topic. You can grab your copy of a worksheet by clicking HERE.
Check out additional resources for teaching grammar and helping your English learners in general:
The Sequence of Teaching Grammar