Error Spotting: Subject-Verb Agreement — MCQs with Answers (Set 1)

‘Committee’ here refers to the group as a single unit, so it takes ‘is’, a singular verb.

‘The price’, not ‘vegetables’, is the subject, so the singular verb ‘has gone up’ is correct.

‘Company’ is usually treated as a singular collective noun, so it takes ‘has announced’.

‘Along with’ does not change the number of the subject; since ‘the teacher’ is singular, the verb should be ‘was visiting’.

‘Neither’ is singular and takes a singular verb: ‘is correct’.

‘Suresh’ is the subject. ‘As well as his colleagues’ is only an add-on phrase. It does not make the subject plural. So the verb must be singular, ‘was’. That makes ‘were’ the error.

‘Furniture’ is uncountable and singular, so it should be ‘Most of the furniture was damaged’.

Phrases like ‘along with’, ‘as well as’, and ‘together with’ do not affect subject-verb agreement; since ‘he’ is singular, it should be ‘was planning’.

‘One of the best’ must be followed by a plural noun: ‘restaurants’, not ‘restaurant’.

‘Furniture’ is an uncountable noun and always takes a singular verb: ‘is very old-fashioned’.

Although ‘everyone’ is grammatically singular, ‘themselves’ is standard, widely accepted usage as a gender-neutral pronoun here.

‘The number of’ takes a singular verb: ‘has increased’, not ‘have increased’. ‘A number of’ would instead take a plural verb.

‘Committee’ is typically treated as a singular collective noun in this context, so it should be ‘has decided’, not ‘have decided’.

In ‘one of the students who…’, the relative clause refers to ‘students’ (plural), so it should be ‘who are always punctual’.

‘Neither’ is singular and takes a singular verb: ‘has finished’, not ‘have finished’.

‘Each’ is singular, so it takes a singular verb: ‘was given’, not ‘were given’.