Animate your writing by choosing concrete, vivid verbs that convey action, intensity, or a specific quality. Go beyond basic or generic verbs to add depth, nuance, and clarity to a sentence. Capture your reader’s attention and enhance the overall richness of your writing—even your business writing. Make the language come alive and engage your reader’s senses.

Follow the Goldilocks principle of verbs: Use vigorous language but don't go overboard:

The verbs section discusses subject-verb agreement, indefinite pronouns and verb agreement, and verb tenses. The mood section discusses indicative, imperative, subjunctive, and conditional moods.

15. make subjects and verbs agree

In a sentence, the subject is the actor and the verb is the action or state of being. Proficient English speakers often claim they instinctively know the correct verb form to use because it sounds right. However, three situations can cause confusion:

1. Intervening prepositional phrases (by far the biggest offender)
2. Intervening relative clauses
3. Intervening phrases other than prepositional phrases

15.1 Identify intervening prepositional phrases.

Intervening means the phrase comes between the subject and the verb.

Which of the following sentences sounds correct?

Sentence 1: Only one of Alex's friends studies accounting at BYU Marriott School.

Sentence 2: Only one of Alex's friends study accounting at BYU Marriott School.

They both sound okay. In fact, Sentence 2 may sound better because the intervening prepositional phrase of Alex's friends contains the plural noun friends.

If the sentence confuses you, revise it, moving the intervening phrase to the start of the sentence, creating an introductory phrase:

REVISED SENTENCE 1: Of Alex's friends, only one studies accounting at BYU Marriott School.

Table 15.1 Subject-verb agreement with intervening prepositional phrases (click here)

15.2 Identify intervening relative clauses.

As you learned in the Syntax and Word Choice lesson, relative clauses are adjectives, so they must go right next to the noun they modify. Remember that a clause has a subject and a verb that agrees with the subject. If the relative clause modifies a singular noun, then the verb of the relative clause must be singular. If the relative clause modifies a plural noun, then the verb of the relative clause must be plural.

Table 15.2 Subject-verb agreement with relative clauses

15.3 Identify other intervening elements.

Intervening phrases like as well as, along with, and together with do not create compound or plural subjects, so they take singular, not plural, verbs. These phrases are connectors that add extra information, but they do not create a plural subject. The word and creates a compound plural subject.

Table 15.3 Subject-verb agreement with intervening phrases

16. Match indefinite pronouns and verbs

The Syntax and Word Choice section discusses indefinite pronouns in their function as pronoun antecedents. A similar issue arises when choosing whether to use a singular or plural verb with indefinite pronouns.

Table 16.1 Indefinite pronouns that always take a singular verb (click here)

Table 16.2 below shows a few examples. When both nouns are singular or plural, the agreement is simple. However, if one noun is singular and one is plural, place the plural noun second and make the verb plural. Although grammatically correct, the sentence sounds awkward if the singular noun comes second.

Table 16.2 With indefinite pronoun pairs, make the verb agree with the closer noun (click here)

Table 16.3 Indefinite pronouns always take a plural verb (click here)

Table 16.4 Indefinite pronouns that take singular or plural verbs (click here)

17. Use the right verb tense

Verb tenses indicate the time of an action or event—present, past, or future. When did the action happen? When will it happen? Is it still happening? Did it happen before something else also happened? Using the correct verb tense clarifies the timeframe of the action.

17.1 Understand verb tenses.

Verb tense refers to the form of the verb that indicates the time of an action or event. It conveys whether the action is in the present, past, or future. The main verb tenses are present, past, and future. Present, past, and future all have conjugations that indicate specific temporal information that accurately expresses the timing of actions or events.

Table 17.1 Verb tenses (click here)

17.2 Reduce double auxiliary verbs.

Writers occasionally reference an event that could have happened in the past but didn't, so they use the phrase would have followed by another verb. Consider this example:

"I would have liked to have seen the movie."

However, that sentence uses double auxiliary verbs—have liked and have seen.

The second have is unnecessary. Changing it to the infinitive—the base verb plus to—more clearly and concisely conveys the same meaning:

I would have liked to see the movie..

Applying this rule simplifies construction.

Table 17.2 Reduce double auxiliary verbs (click here)

17.3 Use the present tense to express a permanent truth or condition.

Suppose someone says to you,

"What did you say your name was?"

Though the person might have been introduced to you last week, if your actual name is the same today as it was last week, the question should be phrased,

“What did you say your name is?” or “What is your name?”

Table 17.3 Use present tense to express a permanent truth or condition (click here)

18. Use the correct mood

A sentence’s verb can express a variety of moods, which indicate whether the writer is stating a fact, issuing a direct command, expressing a condition, implying uncertainty or doubt, or giving a subtle command. The most common English verb moods are indicative, imperative, subjunctive, and conditional.

18.1 The English language uses four moods.

Table 18.1.1 below illustrates the four moods in the English language: indicative, imperative, subjunctive, and conditional.

Table 18.1.1 English language moods (click here)

Even if they know the definitions, writers can easily confuse the conditional and subjunctive moods.

.................

Conditional Mood

The conditional mood is typically used to express hypothetical or conditional situations that depend on a certain condition being met. It expresses possibilities, preferences, or outcomes based on a specific condition or specific events.

Subjunctive Mood

The subjunctive mood expresses wishes, doubts, recommendations, or unreal or hypothetical situations that may not be based on a specific condition. Use subjunctive when you discuss something that may not be true or certain.

Table 18.1.2 Conditional vs. subjunctive mood (click here)

18.2 Sometimes use plural past tense to form the subjunctive.

In some cases, the subjunctive mood uses the plural past tense of the verb instead of the normal conjugation used in the indicative mood. Why?

The subjunctive mood sometimes uses the plural, past-tense form, like were, instead of the singular, past-tense form was, even when the writer is referencing herself or other singular subjects. This construction might seem odd, but it's an English language convention.

The reason for using the plural, past-tense form is historical. English used to have a clearer distinction between different moods, including the subjunctive. The plural, past-tense form was used in subjunctive constructions; over time, this convention stuck.

Today, using the plural past tense in the subjunctive doesn't necessarily mean more than one subject is involved. It's just a way to signal that we're discussing something hypothetical, unreal, or uncertain. It helps writers express ideas like wishes, possibilities, recommendations, or desires that may not be true or certain.

In simple terms, using the plural, past-tense form in the subjunctive is a grammar rule that shows events that might not actually exist or happen, expressing certain thoughts and possibilities.

Table 18.2 Constructing the subjunctive mood (click here)

18.3 Use the polite conditional.

Writers sometimes use the polite conditional when they could use the indicative or imperative instead.

When choosing between the polite conditional and the imperative, consider the level of formality, the power dynamics, and the desired tone of the communication, and be aware of the social and cultural norms that may influence the choice of language in a given context.

Table 18.3 Using the polite conditional (click here)

In Conclusion

Awareness is the first step toward mastery. This section covered four types of verb tenses and moods. If you struggle with any of these, keep studying, practicing, and getting feedback. Your writing and speaking will continue to improve until these seven fundamentals become second nature to you.

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