Agreement, verb forms and tense

Learning objectives

Make a verb agree with its true subject, ignoring prepositional phrases, appositives and relative clauses that come between them

Handle awkward subjects: compound subjects, subjects that follow the verb, collective nouns, indefinite pronouns and singular nouns ending in -s

Match a pronoun to its antecedent in number and person, and avoid pronouns whose antecedent is ambiguous or missing

Supply a finite verb where a sentence needs a main verb, recognizing that a participle or infinitive alone leaves a fragment

Keep verb tense and aspect consistent with the time frame of the text, using perfect forms for actions completed before or continuing up to another time