Fix the five agreement slips that cost marks

Subject–verb agreement errors are the cheapest marks to recover. Here are the five patterns to drill.

Examiners see the same five agreement slips in almost every script. None of them are hard; all of them are habits. Ten minutes a day for a week clears most of them.

01 · The distracting phrase

The box of chocolates are… — no. Strip the phrase between subject and verb: the box… is. The noun next to the verb is usually the trap.

02 · Everyone, someone, nobody

All singular, always: everyone has finished. English treats these words as one-at-a-time, however many people they describe.

03 · There is / there are

Match what follows: there are three reasons. In speech, practise the plural version — the singular is the default slip.

04 · One of the…

One of my friends is… The subject is one. The plural noun after of is scenery.

05 · Neither / either

Neither of the answers was correct. Same logic as one of — the subject is the singular word at the front, not the plural at the back.