IELTS Writing: Fixing Common Subject-Verb Agreement Errors

In the IELTS Writing test, your Grammatical Range and Accuracy account for 25% of your total score. While candidates often obsess over using complex “Band 8.0” vocabulary, they frequently overlook the most fundamental rule of the English language: Subject-Verb Agreement.

Nothing alerts an IELTS examiner to a lower proficiency level faster than a mismatched subject and verb. Writing “The graphs shows” or “People is” instantly damages your grammatical accuracy score, often capping it at a Band 5.5 or 6.0, regardless of how brilliant your ideas are.

To secure a Band 7.0 or higher, your sentences must be mathematically precise. This guide breaks down the core rules of agreement, highlights the three deadliest traps examiners look for, and provides an exact proofreading strategy to fix errors before you hand in your paper.

The Golden Rule: Singular vs. Plural

The foundation of subject-verb agreement is incredibly straightforward, but under the pressure of a 60-minute exam, it is easy to forget.

The rule is based on a simple balance:

Singular Subject: Needs a singular verb (which usually ends in an -s in the present tense).
Plural Subject: Needs a plural verb (which does not end in an -s).

Basic Examples:

Singular: The student (singular) studies (singular verb) every day.
Plural: The students (plural) study (plural verb) every day.

While this seems easy, IELTS Writing Task 1 and Task 2 force you to use complex sentence structures that hide the true subject. That is where the traps begin.

The 3 Deadliest IELTS Subject-Verb Traps

Examiners know exactly where candidates make mistakes. They look for these three specific sentence structures to test your true grammatical control.

Trap 1: The “Middleman” Phrase

When writing complex sentences, you will often put a prepositional phrase between the subject and the verb. Your brain will naturally want to match the verb to the noun physically closest to it, which is almost always wrong.

The Error: The number of cars on the roads are increasing.
The Logic: Your brain sees “roads” (plural) and writes “are.” But “roads” is not the subject; it is just part of the prepositional phrase (“of cars on the roads”). The true subject is “number” (singular).
The Fix: The number of cars on the roads is increasing.

Trap 2: The “Tricky Singulars” (Indefinite Pronouns)

Certain words sound like they represent a large group of people, so candidates mistakenly use plural verbs. In English grammar, these indefinite pronouns are strictly singular.

Always Singular: Everyone, everybody, someone, nobody, each, every, either, neither.

Incorrect (Band 5.5)	Correct (Band 7.0+)
Every student need a laptop.	Every student needs a laptop.
Everyone in the city agree with the law.	Everyone in the city agrees with the law.
Neither of the solutions work.	Neither of the solutions works.

Trap 3: Uncountable Nouns

In IELTS Writing Task 2, you will frequently write about abstract concepts. Uncountable nouns cannot be counted, cannot be made plural (no ‘s’ at the end), and always take a singular verb.

Common IELTS Uncountable Nouns: Information, research, equipment, advice, evidence, knowledge, furniture, homework.

The Error: The researches show that pollution is rising.
The Fix: The research shows that pollution is rising. (Research is uncountable and takes a singular verb).
The Error: The equipments are expensive to maintain.
The Fix: The equipment is expensive to maintain.

Writing Task 1: “A Number of” vs. “The Number of”

If you are describing a bar chart or a line graph in Task 1, you will inevitably use the word “number.” This single word has a unique, highly specific rule that examiners actively check for.

“A number of” = Plural. It means “several” or “many.”
- Example: A number of participants were absent from the study.
“The number of” = Singular. It refers to the specific mathematical statistic itself.
- Example: The number of participants was extremely high in 2010.

The 3-Minute Exam-Day Proofreading Strategy

Even native speakers make subject-verb agreement errors when writing quickly. To protect your score, you must reserve the final 3 minutes of your Writing test exclusively for a “Grammar Sweep.”

Do not read your essay for flow or ideas. Instead, read it mechanically:

Highlight the Verbs: Scan your paragraphs and mentally circle every main verb.
Trace it Back: For every verb you find, trace your finger backward to find the exact noun performing that action.
Check the Balance: Ask yourself: “Is this noun singular or plural? Does the verb match?” Pay special attention to sentences starting with There is / There are, ensuring the verb matches the noun that follows it.