Nouns and Noun Agreement

Back to: ACT English

The ACT will test your knowledge of nouns, specifically making sure the noun(s) in the first half of the sentence (aka subjects) agree with the noun(s) in the second half (aka objects). The nouns must have the same number: singular with singular and plural with plural.

	Example	Explanation
Correct	Tim and Jim want to be teachers.	“teachers” is plural because it refers to two people—Tim and Jim
Incorrect	Tim and Jim want to be a teacher.	“teacher” is singular and does not match the subject—Tim and Jim
Correct	Each wants to be a teacher.	“Each” is singular and matches with the singular noun—“teacher”

How Will the Test Try to Trick You?

Frequently, the ACT will try to trip you up with noun pairings that do not agree.

Incorrect

In each of the following sentences, the noun in the second half does not agree with the noun it is referring to in the first half.

🚫 Ethan continued to pursue his dream to become lawyers.

🚫 The children took their seat.

🚫 The cats were upset after getting their tail pulled.

Correct

The noun pairs now agree in number

✅ Ethan continued to pursue his dream to become a lawyer

✅ The cats were upset after getting their tails pulled.

✅ The children took their seats.

The test will include compound subjects. These are two or more nouns joined by the word and.

Incorrect

The following example is incorrect because Brian and Joseph are TWO people—they can’t be one businessman!

🚫 After they graduated, Brian and Joseph became a businessman.

Correct

A compound subject should be treated like a plural noun, so the noun referring to it must also be plural.

✅ After they graduated, Brian and Joseph became businessmen.

Some sentences will include collective nouns, which can be tricky.

Some common examples include:

audience, assortment, band, choir, club, crowd, family, flock, group, herd,, pack, series, staff, team

Incorrect

Because collective nouns refer to groups of people or things, it might seem like they should be paired with plural nouns.

🚫 The organization strived to be good representatives for all students.

Correct

However, although it represents a group, a collective itself is considered singular. Therefore, it should be paired with a singular noun.

✅ The organization strived to be a good representative for all students.

Tips and Strategies

Annotate!

Underline the nouns in the sentence and note whether they are singular or plural.
Determine which nouns are paired and whether they agree.

Example 1: Incorrect

🚫 Sunflowers have a long stem.

Sunflowers = plural
Stem = singular

The nouns do not agree in number so this is incorrect.

Correction

✅ Sunflowers have long stems.

Example 2: Incorrect

🚫 Meditation, exercise, and healthy eating are a strategy for managing stress.

Meditation, exercise, and healthy eating = plural
Strategy = singular

The nouns do not agree in number so this is incorrect.

Correction

✅ Meditation, exercise, and healthy eating are strategies for managing stress.

Example 3: Correct

✅ The students with the highest scores were selected as class leaders.

students = plural
scores = plural
leaders = plural

All the nouns agree in number so this sentence is correct.

Look out for compound subjects

which should be treated like a plural noun.
Make sure the noun referring to a compound subject is plural.

In the following example, degrees is plural because it refers to the compound subject Abigail and Karen.

Abigail and Karen worked hard to finish their degrees in Veterinary Studies and Animal Husbandry.

Remember that collective nouns

Remember these are singular
Pair collective nouns with singular nouns.

The collective noun team in the following sentence is considered singular and paired with the singular noun champion.

The team wants to be this year’s state champion.

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