Subject-verb agreement is fundamental to correct sentence construction. It’s commonly tested on the CAT, but is overlooked far too often.
The subject is the actor of the sentence. It performs the action described by the verb. For simplicity’s sake,let’s use “subject” to mean the main subject of the sentence, used in an independent clause, though, of course, a sentence can contain multiple actors/subjects. For example:
I love to dance outside when it rains, but Annabelle prefers to stay indoors.
Both “I” and “Annabelle” are subjects, but the subject is “I.” I am the actor, and the action I am performing is loving. I love.
Consider these three hypothetical answer choices:
A) a conclusion about the value of continuing to fund the research could not be decided by the committee
B) the committee was unable to come to a conclusion about the value of continuing to fund the research
C) the committee’s conclusion about the value of continuing to fund the research could not be decided
While there are a variety of differences between these answers, one should jump out as most important. There is some variation in each answer choice’s subject. The subject matters. The question we need to ask ourselves is: Why? How will changing the subject affect the overall sentence? Well, we have three likely reasons.
1. There is a disagreement between the subject and the verb in some answer choices.
This is generally the easiest one to search for. Go find the corresponding verb for each answer choice to spot disagreement. The subjects and verbs are in bold:
A) a conclusion about the value of continuing to fund the research could not be decided by the committee
B) the committee was unable to come to a conclusion about the value of continuing to fund the research
C) the committee’s conclusion about the value of continuing to fund the research could not be decided
While you may need practice before you quickly spot these sentence cores, once you do you should be able to recognize that for this example, there’s no disagreement. There might be some answers you prefer, but that’s a stylistic preference, not a definitive reason to eliminate. Ok, move on to the next possibility.
2. There is a modifier that describes a particular subject.
This is incredibly common with opening modifiers. These must describe the subject of the sentence, so we should verify this. You’ll need the full sentence to determine whether this is the issue, but we can watch for a few typical signs. If the underlined portion begins or ends immediately before the first comma in the sentence, this is likely testing modifiers. https://bellevuehealthcare.com/ That first clause could be an opening modifier, so it’s just a question of whether the modifier is set and you need to adjust the subject accordingly or vice-versa.
Here’s an example with the full sentence included:
Without a deeper knowledge of the quantum mechanics driving the scientists’ hypothesis, a conclusion about the value of continuing to fund the research could not be decided by the committee and therefore voted to delay judgement.
A) a conclusion about the value of continuing to fund the research could not be decided by the committee
B) the committee was unable to come to a conclusion about the value of continuing to fund the research
C) the committee’s conclusion about the value of continuing to fund the research could not be decided
This is definitely an example of an opening modifier. Some entity is missing a deeper knowledge, as described by the first clause, and it’s up to you as test takers to decide which subject fits. For that reason alone, the subject cannot be “a conclusion.” The conclusion may be reached by uninformed people, but it is not, itself, missing knowledge.
That logic eliminates both A and C! Did you catch the possessive form of committee in C? The committee is describing whose conclusion it is, but is not actually the subject. Answer B is the only one with the correct subject, “the committee.”
If that opening modifier were not present, you could still use the subject to pinpoint the right answer.
3. Changing the subject changes the meaning of the sentence.
A conclusion about the value of continuing to fund the research could not be decided by the committee and therefore voted to delay judgement.
A) A conclusion about the value of continuing to fund the research could not be decided by the committee
B) The committee was unable to come to a conclusion about the value of continuing to fund the research
C) The committee’s conclusion about the value of continuing to fund the research could not be decided
This is the hardest to spot, so excellent job if you saw the meaning shift. Generally the meaning change becomes more obvious the more you strip the sentence down to its core. The core of the sentence as written is:
A conclusion could not be decided and voted to delay judgement.
Now we have a transparently nonsensical meaning. The conclusion voted to delay judgement? No. Only the committee could do that, so committee must be the subject.
In sum, if the subject changes, that matters! Try to figure out why it matters and what it’s testing to confidently eliminate answer choices.
