Cross out the of-the-something: subject and verb agreement
The Short Answer
The verb must agree with the subject of the sentence, not with the nearest noun. In the box of apples was left by the gate, the sentence is about the box, so the verb is singular — even though apples sits right beside it and apples were sounds like perfectly good English. Cross out the of the something with a pencil, and what is left tells you which verb to use.
What is a subject and verb agreement question?
Your child is given a sentence with two possible verbs and asked which is correct. Was or were. Has or have. Is or are.
It sounds like the easiest question on the paper, and it catches good readers more than anybody else — because good readers trust their ear, and here the ear is reliably wrong.
The box of apples
The box of apples were left by the gate.
Read that again. Most people think it sounds fine.
Here is why. Your ear grabs the words next to each other — apples were — because apples were is a real English phrase. It sounds like English because it is English.
But the sentence is not about apples. It is about a box. One box. So it has to be:
The box of apples was left by the gate.
The pencil mark
Here is what your child should actually do, on the paper, with a pencil.
Find the head of the subject — the one word the sentence is really about.
Cross out the of the something that follows it.
Read what is left, and choose the verb that fits it.
Can you show me a worked example?
Each, neither, and the rest
The same trap wears different clothes.
Each of the girls have a locker. Wrong. Each means one at a time, so it is singular however many girls there are: each of the girls has a locker.
The same goes for every, either, neither and everybody. All singular, always, whatever noun comes afterwards.
And notice what has happened: a plural noun is once again sitting between the subject and the verb. It is the box of apples all over again.
Where do pupils lose marks?
Trusting the ear, which is the whole design of the question.
Doing it in their head, which works until it does not.
Treating each and neither as plural because the noun after them is.
Try it yourself
Cross out any of-the-something phrase with a pencil before choosing. Do not do this one in your head.
- The box of apples (was / were) left by the gate.
- Each of the girls (has / have) a locker.
- The lanterns above the harbour (was / were) hung before the festival.
- Neither of the answers (seems / seem) right.
- A crate of glass bottles (is / are) waiting in the yard.
- was. Cross out 'of apples' and you are left with 'the box ... left by the gate'. The sentence is about the box, which is one thing. Your ear grabbed 'apples were' because that is a real English phrase — which is exactly why the ear cannot be trusted here.
- has. Each means one at a time, so it is singular however many girls there are. Cross out 'of the girls' and 'each has a locker' is obviously right.
- were. Here the subject really is plural — lanterns — and 'above the harbour' is the phrase in the way. Crossing it out leaves 'the lanterns ... hung', so the plural verb is correct. The method gives the right answer in both directions, which is the point of using it rather than guessing.
- seems. Neither is singular, like each and either. This one sounds particularly wrong to most people, which is worth warning your child about before they meet it.
- is. Cross out 'of glass bottles' and the subject is 'a crate' — one crate. The plural noun sitting next to the verb is doing all the misleading.
How much practice does this type need at home?
Five minutes twice a week is plenty, and the exercise is the crossing out rather than the answering. Give your child a sentence with an of-phrase in it and ask them to cross it out and read what is left — before they even look at the verbs.
Once that mark is automatic, the questions answer themselves. The difficulty was never knowing which verb goes with which subject; it was finding the subject in the first place.
Free: an English workbook
Questions across the English question types, with the method printed at the top and full answers at the back. One workbook for the whole strand, not a sheet per question type.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does the wrong version sound right?
Because your ear grabs the two words next to each other, and 'apples were' is a real English phrase — it sounds like English because it is English, just not the English this sentence needs. The sentence is not about apples; it is about a box. That is why we teach a pencil mark rather than a listening test: the ear is reliably wrong here, and being told to listen harder does not help.
What exactly should my child cross out?
The phrase that comes between the subject and the verb, which usually begins with 'of' — of apples, of the girls, of glass bottles — though it can begin with other words too, as in 'the lanterns above the harbour'. Cross it out on the paper. Every pupil I have taught who tried to do this in their head got it wrong as soon as they were under time pressure.
Which words are always singular?
Each, every, either, neither and everybody — always, whatever noun comes after them. 'Each of the girls has a locker' because each means one at a time. These are worth learning as a short list, because they are the same trap as the box of apples wearing different clothes: a plural noun sitting between the subject and the verb.
Is this the same as the proofreading question?
It often appears inside one. A proofreading question gives a sentence with a deliberate error and asks your child to find it, and agreement is one of the commonest errors planted. So the skill transfers directly — and the pencil mark works just as well when you are hunting for an error as when you are choosing between two options.
Sources
- GL Assessment — 11+ familiarisation materials and question type descriptions Published 2025.
- Clever Clogs Academy — our own Year 4 and Year 5 lesson records, Winslow Published September 2025 to July 2026.
We are not affiliated with, endorsed by or connected to GL Assessment or Buckinghamshire Council. Test arrangements change; always check the council's own pages for the current year's dates.
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