Person and Number

• Person in grammar explains to whom a sentence refers. In English, grammatical person goes hand in hand with grammatical number. Number tells you whether each grammatical person is singular or plural. Modern English observes three persons: first, second and third. You can use subject pronouns to indicate the person of a sentence: "I" is first-person singular; "we" is first-person plural; "you" is second-person singular and plural; "he," "she" and "it" are third-person singular and "they" is third-person plural.
  
  

Verb Conjugation

• When you conjugate an English verb, you must choose the correct person and number. Below you can find the conjugations for the present indicative form of the verb "to live."
  
  I live
  
  You live
  
  He (she or it) lives
  
  We live
  
  All of you live
  
  They live
  
  Subject-verb agreement errors often result from incorrect verb conjugation. For example, "We seen it" is incorrect because the proper first-person plural simple past tense conjugation of "to see" is "saw" not "seen."
  
  

Auxiliary Verbs

• Many writers and speakers make subject-verb agreement errors when using auxiliary verbs such as "to do." Popular culture, especially pop music, has been at least partially responsible for this. Listening to Ringo Starr sing "It don't come easy" or Julian Casablancas reminisce to his girl about "When we was young" influences you, at least subconsciously. Even jazz is to blame: the lyrics of that old standard run "it don't mean a thing if you ain't got that swing," not than "it doesn't mean a thing," after all. The following chart lists the proper verb conjugation for "to do," just in case you need to refresh your memory.
  
  I do
  
  You do
  
  He (she or it) does
  
  We do
  
  All of you do
  
  They do
  
  

Other Common Errors

• Indefinite pronouns like "anyone," "everyone," "no one," "nothing," "nobody" and "something" also trip up many writers. This is because indefinite pronouns replace nouns --- but without specifying what nouns. It becomes difficult to make your verb agree with your subject in number, for instance, when you're not sure what the number of your subject is. See the following examples for common subject-verb agreement errors related to indefinite pronouns.
  
  Incorrect usage:
  
  Are everyone alright?
  
  Correct usage:
  
  Is everyone alright?
  
  Incorrect usage:
  
  Are anyone home?
  
  Correct usage:
  
  Is anyone home?