Subject–verb agreement and the -s ending
In the present simple, a singular subject (he, she, it, my friend, everyone) takes a verb with -s. Find the real subject and check whether it is singular or plural before you choose the verb.
How it works
- He, she, it and any singular noun take -s in the present simple: She works. My phone needs charging. Questions and negatives use does/doesn't + base form: Does he work? He doesn't work.
- Have → has, do → does, go → goes, watch → watches, be → is/was with a singular subject.
- Everyone, everybody, someone, nobody, each and every take a singular verb: Everyone knows. Each room has a fan.
- Uncountable nouns and words that look plural but mean one thing are singular: The news is good. Maths is hard. The information is wrong.
- Some nouns are plural with no -s: people, police. People are friendly here. The police are coming.
- Find the real subject: The price of these shoes is high (price, not shoes). One of my friends lives in Hue.
- There is + a singular or uncountable noun, there are + a plural noun: There is a lot of traffic. There are many motorbikes.
Examples
My mother runs a small shop near Ben Thanh Market.
Everyone in my class has a laptop.
The news is on at seven.
One of my cousins lives in Canada.
There are a lot of motorbikes in Hanoi.
Does your brother work at weekends?
Common mistakes
Wrong: He
goto work by bus.Right: He goes to work by bus.
Wrong: The news
arevery bad today.Right: The news is very bad today.
Wrong: Everyone
havea different opinion.Right: Everyone has a different opinion.
Wrong: There
ismany tourists in Hoi An.Right: There are many tourists in Hoi An.
Practice
1 of 16Fill the gap.
Level: EGP Verbs (present simple) and Nouns: third-person -s is A1, but Vietnamese learners still drop it at B1; agreement after uncountable nouns, everyone/each and there is/are is the B1 point. Written for Gloss.