03 — Subject–verb agreement

What this fixes for you: the verb matching the subject, so your PRs and standups stop saying “the tests passes” or “the users is” — small slips that make solid work read as sloppy.

The rule in 30 seconds

• One thing → singular verb. Many things → plural verb. “The test passes” / “The tests pass”.
• The verb agrees with the real subject, not the noun nearest to it: “The list of files is ready” (the list is ready, not the files).
• “each”, “every”, “everyone”, “one of …” are all singular: “Each endpoint returns JSON”, “One of the tests fails”.
• “There is” for one, “There are” for many: “There is one failing test”, “There are two open PRs”.

Why this trips you up

In your first language the verb may not change with the subject the way it does in English, so you reach for one form and stick with it. You also tend to drop the plural -s on nouns (“so much mistake” instead of “so many mistakes”), which then knocks the verb out of agreement too. And when a long phrase sits between the subject and the verb (“the list of failing files”), you match the verb to whatever word is closest instead of the true subject.

See it / fix it

❌ What you tend to write	✅ Correct	Why
the tests passes now	the tests pass now	Plural subject (“tests”) → plural verb (no -s).
the test pass after my fix	the test passes after my fix	Singular subject (“test”) → verb takes -s.
the list of files are uploaded	the list of files is uploaded	The subject is “list” (singular), not “files”.
each of the services need restart	each of the services needs a restart	”each” is singular → “needs”; also add the article “a”.
there is two failing checks	there are two failing checks	Two checks → plural → “there are”.
one of the migrations fail on prod	one of the migrations fails on prod	”one” is the subject → singular → “fails”.
the API return 500 sometimes	the API returns 500 sometimes	Singular subject “API” → “returns”.
the users is logged out randomly	the users are logged out randomly	Plural subject “users” → “are”.
everyone have access to the repo	everyone has access to the repo	”everyone” is singular → “has”.
the data are missing in the response	the data is missing in the response	In dev/everyday writing, treat “data” as singular: “data is”.
so much mistake in this PR	so many mistakes in this PR	”mistakes” is countable → use “many” + plural -s.
none of the endpoints is documented	none of the endpoints are documented	With a plural “of” phrase, “none … are” reads naturally.

Patterns to remember

Find the real subject first. Cross out the “of …” phrase, then pick the verb.

Subject phrase	Real subject	Verb
the list of files	list	is / was
a set of rules	set	applies
one of the tests	one	fails
each of the configs	each	needs
the array of users	array	contains

Singular crew (always a singular verb): each, every, everyone, everybody, someone, nobody, anything, one of, neither (alone).

Each / every / -one / -body → verb + s. “Everybody is here”, “Each field is required”.

There is vs there are: match the verb to what comes after it.

“There is a bug.” / “There are bugs.” When listing mixed items, match the first: “There is one error and three warnings.”

Collective nouns (team, group, staff, list): in American English, treat them as singular by default. “The team is shipping today”, “The QA team owns this.” (British writing allows “the team are”, but stay singular to be safe.)

Countable test — many vs much:

Can you count it? → plural -s + many (many mistakes, many bugs, many requests). Can’t count it (a mass)? → much (much progress, much memory, much traffic).

In your daily writing

• Commit messages: “Fix race condition where the worker drops events” — singular “worker” → “drops”. Quick scan: is the doer one or many?
• PR titles: “These changes make the build pass” — plural “changes” → “make”; “build” is one → “pass” (because the helper “make” already carries the agreement, the next verb stays base form).
• Standups (Slack): “All the tests pass locally” not “passes”. “One of my branches is still red” not “are”.
• Code comments: ”// This function returns null when the cache is empty” — both subjects singular → both verbs take -s/”is”.
• Bug reports: “The API returns 200 but the body is empty” — describe each singular subject with a singular verb; it reads precise and credible.

Drills

Fix the agreement (and any dropped plural / article you spot).

1. the list of failing tests are getting longer.
2. each of the services run in its own container.
3. one of the env variables are missing on staging.
4. there is three open pull request on this repo.
5. the API endpoints returns different shapes — fix this.
6. everyone on the team have merge rights now.
7. the data from the webhook are not validated.
8. Choose A or B: “Neither of the builds (A) pass / (B) passes the lint step.”
9. Fill the blank: “The set of rules ___ (apply) only to admin users.”
10. so much edge case is not covered by the test.
11. Choose A or B: “There (A) is / (B) are a memory leak and two slow queries.”
12. the team are responsible for this incident, and i will write the postmortem.

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Answer key

1. The list of failing tests is getting longer. Subject is “list” (singular) → “is”; also capitalize the first word.
2. Each of the services runs in its own container. “each” is singular → “runs”.
3. One of the env variables is missing on staging. “one” is the subject → “is”.
4. There are three open pull requests on this repo. Three → “are”; “requests” needs the plural -s.
5. The API endpoints return different shapes — fix this. Plural “endpoints” → “return” (no -s).
6. Everyone on the team has merge rights now. “everyone” is singular → “has”.
7. The data from the webhook is not validated. Treat “data” as singular in dev writing → “is”.
8. B — passes. “Neither” alone is singular → “passes”.
9. applies. “The set … applies”; subject is “set” (singular), not “rules”.
10. So many edge cases are not covered by the test. Countable → “many” + plural “cases” → “are”; capitalize “So”.
11. A — is. “There is” matches the first item (“a memory leak”, singular).
12. The team is responsible for this incident, and I will write the postmortem. American English: collective “team” is singular → “is”; capitalize “I”.

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Part of the Developer English course — see 00-index.md.