Skill 11 : Agreement After Preposotional Phrases

Subject or verb agreement is simple. If the subject or a sentence is singular, then the verb must be singular, if the subject of the sentence is plural, then the verb  must be plural. An s on a verb usually indicates that a verb is singular, while an s on a noun usually indicates that the noun is plural. (Don't forget irregular plurals of nouns, such as women, children, and people)

The dog barks at night
The dogs bark at night.

In the first example, the singular subject dog requires a singular verb, barks. In the second example, the plural subject dogs requires a plural verb, bark.

Sometime a prepositional phrases can come between the subject and the verb on the TOEFL test and this can cause confusion. If the object of preposition is singular and subject is plural, or if the object of preposition is plural and the subject is singular, there can be a problem in making the subject and verb agree.

The door (to the rooms) are locked.
The doors (to the room) is locked.


In the first example, you might think rooms is the subject because it comes directly in front of the verb are. However, noun is not the subject because it is the object of the preposition to. The subject of the sentence is door, so the verb should be is. In the second example, you might think that room is the subject because it comes directly in front of the verb is. You should recognize in this example that room is not the subject because it is the object of the preposition to. Because the subject of the sentence is doors, the verb should be are. 
The following chart outlines the key information that you should understand about the subject /verb agreement with the prepositional phrases.

SUBJECT/ VERB AGREEMENT WITH PREPOSITIONAL PHRASES

S    prepositional phrase     V

When a prepositional phrase comes between the subject and the verb, be sure that the verb agrees with the subject.