How do you find the subject for subject-verb agreement?

Put who or what in front of the verb and answer with words from the sentence. That answer is the subject. Cross out any phrase or clause between it and the verb first, and if the sentence opens with a phrase of place, look after the verb.

Does along with or as well as make a subject plural?

No. Each adds a phrase, not a second subject. In The pilot, along with two engineers, checks the dials, the subject is one pilot and the verb is singular. Cross the phrase out, commas and all, and read what is left.

Is a subject joined by and always plural?

Two different things joined by and take a plural verb. The exception is when each or every stands in front of the pair: Every coat and hat is labelled, because every counts them one at a time.

Which noun decides the verb after either or and neither nor?

The nearer one. In Neither the cooks nor the waiter was told, the verb agrees with waiter. In Neither the waiter nor the cooks were told, it agrees with cooks.

Why does the wrong verb often sound right?

The ear agrees with the nearest word. Test writers put a noun of the opposite number next to the blank on purpose, usually inside a phrase that begins with of, in or beside. Cross the phrase out and the trap disappears.

What if the sentence starts with a phrase like beside the gate?

The subject usually comes after the verb. Ask what is beside the gate, answer with words from the sentence, and turn the sentence round so that the subject comes first. Then count it.

Subject-verb agreement: how to find the subject

Ask who or what does the verb, and answer with words from the sentence. Cross out what stands between that answer and the verb, then match the verb to what is left: one thing, or more than one.

1.Put who or what in front of the blank and answer with words from the sentence. The answer is the subject, and the noun right beside the blank is often not it.
2.Cross out the words in between: a phrase that begins with of, in or beside, a clause that begins with that or which, or a phrase that begins with along with or as well as. They add detail to the subject. None of them is the subject.
3.If the sentence opens with a phrase of place, look after the blank for the subject. Then turn the sentence round so that the subject comes first.
4.Count what is left. One thing takes a singular verb. Two different things joined by and take a plural one, unless each or every stands in front of them. With either or and neither nor, the nearer noun decides.

Try it on a question

Work it below before you open the working. The steps say what to do, and you can do each one yourself.

Lost property at the primary school is kept in a cardboard box behind the office door. By December the box of odd gloves, hats and umbrellas handed in by pupils ______ more than sixty items. Anything unclaimed goes to a charity shop in the spring.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

Choice A: hold
Choice B: holds
Choice C: have held
Choice D: are holding

1
Say who or what does the verb before you look at the four forms. Then name the words in between that you could cross out.
2
Try each of the four forms and read the verdict. It says whether the form fits the subject you named and, where the sentence is set in a particular time, whether it fits that too.
3
Look at the noun beside the blank in every sentence. It is the wrong one to listen to in most of them. Then find the pair joined by and, and the sentence where the subject comes after the verb.

Find the subject

Sentence 1 of 7

Seven sentences, each hiding its subject in a different place: behind a long phrase, behind a clause, behind along with, in a pair joined by and, behind each, in a neither and nor pair, and after the verb. Say who or what does the verb, cross out the words between, then match the verb to what is left.

The map of the pits, passages and chambers across the old lead mines the verb more than forty routes.

1. Who or what does the verb?

2. Which form goes with it?

Find what does the verb first.

The full working, and why each wrong choice is there

Ask who or what holds more than sixty items: the box. Cross out the words between, from of to pupils, and what is left reads By December the box ______ more than sixty items. One box is singular, so the verb is holds. Gloves, hats, umbrellas and pupils are all plural, and pupils stands right beside the blank, but every one of them sits inside a phrase that begins with of.

Choice A: hold
Pupils sits right beside the blank and is plural, so the ear reaches for a plural form. Pupils belongs to a phrase that begins with of, though, and a noun inside such a phrase does not do the verb.
Choice B: holdsthe answer
The box does the verb, and one box is singular. Cross out the words between, and the box ______ more than sixty items is left.
Choice C: have held
Gloves, hats and umbrellas are three plural things, and the ear counts them as the subject. They belong to the phrase that tells you what is in the box. The box is what does the verb.
Choice D: are holding
Hearing umbrellas are, or pupils are, is the same slip: two words that sound as if they belong together. The box does the verb, and one box is singular.

Use it when

The four choices are the same verb in different forms, such as is and are, has and have, or a verb with and without an s.
A phrase, a clause or a pair of nouns stands between the subject and the blank, and the noun right beside the blank sounds like the subject.
The sentence opens with a phrase of place, such as beside the gate or above the door, and the blank comes next.

Do not use it when

The choices differ in tense or in the shape of the verb, such as finishing, finished or to finish, and not in number. Agreement is not what that question tests.
The blank comes straight after that, which or who. The verb belongs to the noun the clause describes, so do not cross the clause out. Try each earlier noun in front of that word and keep the one that can do the verb.
The subject is an activity or a whole clause, such as sorting the post or whether the road reopens. Treat it as one thing and use a singular verb; crossing out words does not settle it.

Five questions on this move

Untimed, and nothing is saved. A wrong first answer gets one more try before the working is shown.

Question 1 of 5

The old brewery yard is open to walkers from April to October. The iron gates that close it at the western end ______ a fresh coat of paint every spring. Local volunteers do the work over two weekends, and the town keeps a record of each job.

Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

Five is a start

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Practise Form, Structure, and Sense in your account

How this page was checked

Every verb form, by our agreement rules
For each of the 6 questions on this page, what does the verb is recorded, and an automated test checks that only the keyed form agrees with it.
The whole page, by a person
Not yet. Every question and every item of its lab was worked through in a browser by Claude, an AI assistant, on 14 October 2026. The page was published on 14 October 2026 before a person had read it. If something here is wrong, tell us and it is put right.

The questions were drafted with AI and are original: none is a College Board question, and none comes from the question bank behind our practice tests.

Where this comes from

“Who or what does the verb?” is one card from the Preptics lesson Subject-verb agreement: ask who or what does the verb, which sits under the Digital SAT skill Form, Structure, and Sense. The lesson has the other cards around it, and its questions come back for review on a schedule. The lessons are part of the Digital SAT track.

Common questions

How do you find the subject for subject-verb agreement?: Put who or what in front of the verb and answer with words from the sentence. That answer is the subject. Cross out any phrase or clause between it and the verb first, and if the sentence opens with a phrase of place, look after the verb.
Does along with or as well as make a subject plural?: No. Each adds a phrase, not a second subject. In The pilot, along with two engineers, checks the dials, the subject is one pilot and the verb is singular. Cross the phrase out, commas and all, and read what is left.
Is a subject joined by and always plural?: Two different things joined by and take a plural verb. The exception is when each or every stands in front of the pair: Every coat and hat is labelled, because every counts them one at a time.
Which noun decides the verb after either or and neither nor?: The nearer one. In Neither the cooks nor the waiter was told, the verb agrees with waiter. In Neither the waiter nor the cooks were told, it agrees with cooks.
Why does the wrong verb often sound right?: The ear agrees with the nearest word. Test writers put a noun of the opposite number next to the blank on purpose, usually inside a phrase that begins with of, in or beside. Cross the phrase out and the trap disappears.
What if the sentence starts with a phrase like beside the gate?: The subject usually comes after the verb. Ask what is beside the gate, answer with words from the sentence, and turn the sentence round so that the subject comes first. Then count it.

Keep going

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