Correcting Subject-Verb Agreement Errors - PSAT Writing

The verb used in the sentence, "like," is a plural form, but the subject of the sentence is actually a singular form, "Every one." A subject and verb must always be in agreement. "Every one of the kids likes their new teacher" is the only answer choice to have appropriate subject-verb agreement.

The use of the singular verb "was" is incorrect with the plural subject "members." Even though the verb is next to the singular group, the verb needs to match the subject. Thus the correct answer choice is "the group were frequently at odds," which is the only choice with the appropriate verb tense.

The use of the past tense verb "were" indicates that the main verb of the sentence, "knows," should also be in the past tense, as they should be in agreement. Thus, the verb "knows" needs to be changed to its past-tense form. "No one knew where the paintings" is the only answer choice that correctly does this.

The use of the plural verb form "make" is incorrect in this sentence, as the subject, "The leader," is a singular noun. A subject and verb must always be in agreement, meaning the verb needs to be changed to a singular form. Only "the football players makes all decisions" uses the proper verb form, so it is the correct answer choice.

The subject of the sentence is a singular noun, "first," but the sentence is written with a plural verb, "were." A subject and the verb that describes its action must always be in agreement, meaning this verb needs to be changed to a singular form. The only answer choice to use the correct verb form is "the shows was much tamer."

The verb in the sentence, "were," is a plural verb, but the subject of the sentence is "one," a singular noun. Any subject and verb must be in agreement, so the verb has to be changed to the singular form, because "one" is not underlined in the sentence. Therefore, the correct answer choice is "the boys was making trouble."

Becuase the subject, "restaurant," is singluar, the verb must be be singular as well. The verb and the subject in a sentence must always agree with each other.

An apostrophe is necessary to show possession, but the word “director” doesn’t need to be capitalized unless it is the official title or nickname of the person. Since “the quality” is singular, the sentence must read, "Despite positive reviews from movie critics, the quality of the young director’s recent films is rather questionable."

No error. The subject “the majority” is singular, so the verb must be “believes.” "The media" is plural because it refers to various sources, so the verb should be “are.”

"There are” is correct because it indicates the existence of more than one thing (e.g., varieties). “Which” is incorrect because it does not follow a comma, nor does it refer to a complement/predicate.

This sentence contains an error in subject-verb agreement. The sentence's subject is "reports," so the verb "has" needs to be changed to plural "have" in order to agree with the plural subject "reports."

Since "multitude" is a singular subject, its verb must be singular as well. The only answer choice that contains a singular verb is "lies"; the rest incorrectly contain plural verbs.

The answer choice "argue that a feeling of connectedness with other human beings, along with a positive self-image, contributes to the overall health" is correct. It contains the correct number agreement of the verb "contributes" with its subject, "a feeling of connectedness with other human beings."

The answer choices containing "contribute" instead of "contributes" are incorrect. The subject of "contribute" is singular, not plural.

Although the answer choice "argues that a feeling of connectedness with other human beings, along with a positive self-image, contributes to the overall health" correctly contains "contributes," the verb "argues" introduces a number agreement error, as "argues" is singular but being used with a plural subject, "Freud and other advocates of introspective psychology."

The answer choice "the distance between the sun and the planets varies over time" is correct. It correctly uses a singular verb—"varies"—to match the singular subject, "distance."

All of the other answer choices are incorrect because they contain a subject-verb number agreement error. They use plural verb forms when they should use singular verb forms instead.

Here, there is a subject-verb agreement problem. The subject is “number”, which is singular. The verb “are” does not match up with “number” because it is plural. We need to say “number…is”.

The underlined portion does not show proper subject-verb agreement. Although there are "children" playing, the sentence refers to "each," which is singular. "Each of the children is" is the correct answer.

The use of the phrase "Some of the" always indicates a plural, even when referring to small slice of a larger group. The verb tense for "is" then needs to be changed into a plural form. "Some of the soldiers are still missing," is the correct answer choice.

The underlined portion of the sentence contains a verb error with "runs." "John and Susan," while both singular nouns, are together a plural, and need a plural verb form, instead of the singular "runs." "Run to the finish line" is the correct answer choice.

The underlined part of the sentence contains a flaw in subject verb agreement. "No one" is properly used as a singular form. Therefore, "no one questions" is the correct answer choice.