Subject-Verb Agreement: The 6 Error Patterns I See Most in HK Primary English

Subject-verb agreement — making sure the verb matches its subject in number — is one of those English grammar features that Cantonese speakers find genuinely counterintuitive. In Cantonese, verbs do not change form based on whether the subject is singular or plural. There is no equivalent of the distinction between "She runs" and "They run." Every sentence my students write in English requires them to make a grammatical decision that their home language never asks them to make.

It is no surprise, then, that subject-verb agreement errors are among the most common I encounter in marking. Here are the six patterns that appear most frequently — and how to address each.

Error Pattern 1: Third-Person Singular Forgetting the -s

Error: She run every morning. He like football. My mother work in a hospital.

Correct: She runs every morning. He likes football. My mother works in a hospital.

This is the most pervasive error at P3–P4 level. In present simple tense, third-person singular (he, she, it) requires an -s on the verb — but this rule has no equivalent in Cantonese and must be consciously applied until it becomes habit.

Correction approach: When children write a sentence in present simple, ask: "Who is doing the action? Is it he/she/it? Then what must you add?" The habit of checking needs to be drilled explicitly, not just corrected post-writing.

The tricky spelling variants:

• go → goes, do → does (add es)
• study → studies, try → tries (y → ies)
• have → has (completely irregular)

Error Pattern 2: Plural Subject with Singular Verb

Error: The students was happy. My parents is coming. The children runs quickly.

Correct: The students were happy. My parents are coming. The children run quickly.

Children who have partially learned "he/she → add s" sometimes overapply the rule and use singular forms with all subjects. The key concept: plural subjects need plural verbs — and "adding s to the verb" is the opposite of what you do with plurals.

This feels paradoxical: "books" (plural noun, has s) + "are" (plural verb, no s). "book" (singular noun, no s) + "is" (singular verb, has s). English puts the -s on either the noun or the verb, but not both at once.

Error Pattern 3: Compound Subjects

Error: Tom and Mary is in P4. My sister and I goes to the same school.

Correct: Tom and Mary are in P4. My sister and I go to the same school.

When a subject consists of two or more people or things joined by and, it is plural. The verb must be plural.

Exception that confuses students: Bread and butter is delicious — here the subject is conceptually one thing (a meal combination) and so takes a singular verb. This exception is above primary level and need not be taught; at primary, "X and Y" should consistently use a plural verb.

Error Pattern 4: Subject-Verb Separation by Prepositional Phrase

Error: The box of chocolates are on the table. One of the students are absent.

Correct: The box of chocolates is on the table. One of the students is absent.

This is a more sophisticated error that appears at P5–P6 level. The subject is box (singular) and one (singular) — the plural words chocolates and students are part of prepositional phrases describing the subject, not the subject themselves.

The strategy: identify the true subject (the word before "of") and check agreement against that word only. Cross out the "of + noun" phrase mentally and reread: "The box... is on the table." Clearer.

Error Pattern 5: Collective Nouns

Error: The team are winning. My family are going to Japan.

This is actually a genuinely contested area of English. In British English (which HK schools follow), collective nouns like team, family, class, government can take either singular or plural verbs depending on whether you conceptualise the group as a unit (singular) or as individual members (plural).

The team is playing well today (team as unit — British and American both accept this). The team are arguing with each other (individual members of the team — accepted in British English).

For primary purposes, I teach: when in doubt, treat collective nouns as singular. This avoids errors and is always grammatically acceptable. The class is; the team is; the family is — treat them as single entities.

Error Pattern 6: Agreement After "There is / There are"

Error: There is many students in the hall. There are a dog in the garden.

Correct: There are many students in the hall. There is a dog in the garden.

In sentences beginning with there is/are, the verb must agree with the noun that follows, not with "there" (which is just a placeholder). Teach children to reverse the sentence mentally: "Many students are in the hall" → are → "There are many students in the hall."

Common confusion: There's a few problems — many native speakers say this in informal speech, but in written primary English, There are a few problems is the correct form and what examiners expect.

A Practical Revision Routine

For children whose writing consistently shows agreement errors, I recommend a specific editing pass:

1. Finish the writing task.
2. Go back and underline every present tense verb.
3. For each underlined verb, ask: who/what is the subject? Singular or plural?
4. Check agreement.

This two-step process (write first, check agreement separately) is more effective than trying to apply the rule while composing, which overloads working memory. Eventually the checking becomes automatic — but in the learning stage, the explicit step is necessary.

Subject-verb agreement is genuinely difficult for Cantonese-first learners, and I say this not to excuse persistent errors but to help parents understand why reminding your child "just check your verbs" is not sufficient. They need the explicit grammatical framework — singular/plural, the -s rule, the exception cases — taught, practised, and applied systematically.