 Advanced Subject Verb Agreement in English from espressoenglish.net Subject Verb Agreement is one of the first things you learn in English. For example, my friend is Japanese. We use the word is because friend is singular. My friends are Japanese. We use are because friends is plural. In this lesson you're going to learn some more advanced cases of subject verb agreement that confuses many English learners. The words everybody, anybody, somebody, and nobody, as well as everyone, anyone, someone, and no one are all singular. The sentence everyone have problems is incorrect. The correct sentence is everyone has problems. Even though everyone refers to many people, it is treated as a group and takes the singular verb. Nobody like the new teacher is also incorrect. The correct form is nobody likes the new teacher. Club, team, family, and army are other examples of words that refer to a group of people but they are singular. For example, my family is visiting me next week. The volleyball team has a game tomorrow. In British English family and team are often plural. The word police as a group is plural. For example, police are investigating the crime. Police have arrested two suspects. If you want to talk about an individual person who is part of the police, you can say police man, police woman, or police officer. These are singular. People, children, women, mice, and feet are all plural. These are irregular plural nouns because they don't have S but they still take the plural form of the verb. For example, our children is very smart, is incorrect. The correct sentence is our children are very smart. Both, a few of, many, and several are all plural. For example, both of my brothers are older than me. Many of these apartments don't have internet. Now, here's the tricky part. Half, a third of, forty percent of, some, and most can be singular or plural depending on the noun that follows them. Here's an example. Half of the students are from France. In this case, we use the plural verb are because students is plural. Half of the class is from France. In this case, we use the singular verb is because class is singular. Here's another example. Some of these facts are incorrect. Facts is plural so we use the plural verb are. Some of this information is incorrect. Information is uncountable so it's always singular and we use the singular form is. One more example. Forty percent of the voters don't support the new law. Don't is the plural form because voters is plural. Forty percent of the country doesn't support the new law. In this case, doesn't is the singular form because country is also singular. One final tip about the word data. Data can be singular or plural. Technically, data is plural. The singular form is datum. But in everyday English, people treat the word data like the word information, which is singular. So both forms are considered correct. The data are accurate and the data is accurate. Thanks for watching English Tips from Espresso English. If you liked this video, please share it.