Agreement - Regular Verbs

To agree with a singular noun, a regular, present-tense verb should end in 's' or 'es', or have no special ending.

• Michael walks every day, and every day a loose dog turns him into a marathon runner.
• The dog catcher regularly catches an average of 10 loose dogs per day, of which at least five add to the odor that pervades the back of the truck.
• "Hey, I don't mind that odor," the dog catcher exclaims. "To me, it's the sweet smell of success."

To agree with a plural noun, a regular, present-tense verb does not need any special ending.

• Michael and Melissa leisurely walk the streets of Paris every morning, and every day the street-cleaning trucks seem to direct their spray toward them a bit more aggressively.
• You could say that they regularly catch a shower, which adds to their exhilaration and joie de vivre.
• "Hey, we like to walk, and we really do not mind the wetness," they exclaim. "It makes others think that we've just completed a long run."

Regular, past-tense verbs do not have to agree with their nouns; the past-tense ending ('d' or 'ed') overrides the need for further agreement.

• Michael completed a long run.
• Michael and Melissa completed a long run.

Exercise 1: Noun-Verb Agreement