Monday Morning Grammar: Subject-Verb Agreement IV—Inverted Sentence Construction and Linking Verbs

In this final installment of Mots Justes’ series on subject-verb agreement, we’ll examine funky sentence constructions.
In most sentences, the subject comes first, followed by the verb. However, sometimes the verb comes before the subject. This can cause confusion, but make sure that the verb still agrees with the subject:
On the hard drive is a copy [...]

Monday Morning Grammar: Subject-Verb Agreement III—Indefinite and Relative Pronouns

So far in Mots Justes’ continuing series on subject-verb agreement, we’ve covered the basics and compound subjects. Let’s move on now to the tricky matter of indefinite and relative pronouns.
Nothing’s Definite
Indefinite pronouns substitute for nonspecific nouns. They include any, anybody, anyone, each, either, everybody, everyone, everything, neither, none, no one, someone, and something. Usually indefinite [...]

Monday Morning Grammar: Subject-Verb Agreement II–Compound Subjects

Over the past couple of weeks on Monday Morning Grammar, we’ve been discussing subject-verb agreement. Last week we went over the basics and how not to get distracted by words getting in the middle of the subject and the verb.
This week we’ll discuss compound subjects, which, when composed of two or more nouns (or pronouns) [...]

Monday Morning Grammar: Subject-Verb Agreement

Subject-verb agreement can trip up even professional writers and editors. There’s an error of this type on the back cover of Grammar Girl, and the New York Times recently acknowledged making similar mistakes.
Last week on Monday Morning Grammar, we discussed collective nouns. This week let’s take a step back and review the basics of subject-verb [...]