8.2 Subject-verb agreement

Basic principles of agreement

In Latin, the verb must match its subject in number (singular or plural) and person (first, second, or third). Because Latin word order is flexible, these agreement patterns are often your best clue for figuring out who is doing what in a sentence.

Number agreement

A singular subject takes a singular verb form, and a plural subject takes a plural verb form.

• Singular: puer cantat (the boy sings)
• Plural: pueri cantant (the boys sing)

Collective nouns like turba (crowd) or populus (people) can go either way depending on whether the author is thinking of the group as a unit or as individuals. More on that below.

Person agreement

Verbs also agree with their subjects in person:

• First person (the speaker): ego scrībō (I write)
• Second person (the listener): tū scrībis (you write)
• Third person (someone/something else): is scrībit (he writes)

Because Latin verb endings already tell you the person and number, personal pronouns (ego, tū) are often dropped. You'll see scrībō by itself meaning "I write" without needing ego.

A note on gender

Verbs themselves do not change for gender. However, adjectives and participles that relate to the subject must agree in gender:

• puer bonus (good boy, masculine)
• puella bona (good girl, feminine)

Relative pronouns also agree with their antecedent in gender and number, though they take their case from their role in the relative clause.

Verb forms and endings

Verb endings carry the agreement information. Recognizing these patterns across conjugations is how you confirm which subject goes with which verb.

Present tense endings

Past tense endings

• Imperfect (all conjugations share the same pattern): -bam, -bās, -bat, -bāmus, -bātis, -bant
• Perfect (built on the perfect stem): -ī, -istī, -it, -imus, -istis, -ērunt (or -ēre)
• Pluperfect (perfect stem + imperfect of sum): -eram, -erās, -erat, -erāmus, -erātis, -erant

Irregular verbs form their perfect stems unpredictably: fuī (from sum), potuī (from possum).

Future tense endings

The future tense splits into two patterns:

• 1st and 2nd conjugation: -bō, -bis, -bit, -bimus, -bitis, -bunt
• 3rd and 4th conjugation: -am, -ēs, -et, -ēmus, -ētis, -ent

Watch out: the 3rd/4th conjugation future endings look a lot like 2nd conjugation present tense endings. Context and the verb's conjugation class will help you tell them apart.

The future perfect is built on the perfect stem with the endings -erō, -eris, -erit, -erimus, -eritis, -erint.

Subject types

Singular vs. plural subjects

This is usually straightforward: singular subject, singular verb; plural subject, plural verb.

• canis lātrat (the dog barks)
• canēs lātrant (the dogs bark)

Some nouns look plural but are treated as singular. Place names are a common example: Athēnae (Athens) is plural in form but refers to one city, so you may see it with either a singular or plural verb depending on the author and context.

Certain neuter plural nouns, especially castra (camp), sometimes appear with singular verbs when the author treats them as a single concept. For example: castra movētur (the camp is moved).

Compound subjects

When two or more subjects are joined by et (and), the verb is typically plural:

• puer et puella currunt (the boy and girl run)

With aut (or) or nec/neque (nor), the verb often agrees with the nearest subject and tends toward the singular.

When compound subjects differ in person, Latin generally follows a hierarchy: first person outranks second, and second outranks third. So ego et tū takes a first person plural verb (currimus), while tū et ille takes a second person plural verb (curritis).

For adjective agreement with mixed-gender compound subjects, the masculine typically wins out.

Collective nouns

Nouns like turba (crowd) and populus (people) can take either singular or plural verbs:

• turba clāmat (the crowd shouts, emphasizing the group as a unit)
• turba clāmant (the crowd shout, emphasizing the individuals)

The author's intent and context determine the choice. You'll see both in classical texts.

Special cases

Impersonal verbs

Some verbs have no personal subject and are always third person singular:

• pluit (it rains), ningit (it snows)
• licet (it is permitted), oportet (it is necessary)

These often take a dative for the person affected: mihi licet (it is permitted to me / I may).

Indefinite pronouns

Pronouns like aliquis (someone) and nēmō (no one) are singular and take singular verbs:

• aliquis venit (someone comes)

Distributive pronouns like quisque (each) are grammatically singular, but when they refer back to a plural subject, you may see a plural verb in practice: puerī quisque suam partem agunt (the boys each play their part). This is a case where sense overrides strict grammar.

Relative pronouns

The relative pronoun (quī, quae, quod) agrees with its antecedent in gender and number, but takes its case from its function within the relative clause. The verb inside the relative clause agrees with the relative pronoun in person and number.

For example, if the antecedent is a first person pronoun, the relative clause verb will be first person: ego quī scrībō (I who write).

Common agreement errors

Proximity agreement errors

The most common mistake is making the verb agree with the nearest noun rather than the actual subject. This happens especially when a genitive or prepositional phrase sits between the subject and verb.

• Error: multitūdō hominum vēnit (treating multitūdō as the subject with singular verb, when the intended subject might be the group acting as individuals)
• Fix: Always trace back to the nominative noun that serves as the true subject before choosing your verb form.

Intervening phrases

Phrases tucked between the subject and verb can throw you off:

• Cicerō, cum aliīs senātōribus, ōrātiōnem habuit (Cicero, with other senators, delivered a speech)

Here Cicerō is the subject, so the verb is singular (habuit), even though "other senators" are mentioned. The cum phrase doesn't create a compound subject.

Inverted word order

Latin poets and prose writers regularly rearrange word order for emphasis or style:

• Rōmam ībant rēgēs (Kings were going to Rome)

The subject (rēgēs) comes last here. When word order is unfamiliar, rely on case endings and verb endings to identify the subject-verb pair.

Agreement with specific constructions

Cum clauses

• Temporal cum clauses (when/whenever) typically use the indicative.
• Causal or concessive cum clauses (since/although) typically use the subjunctive.

In both cases, the verb inside the cum clause agrees with its own subject, and the main clause verb agrees with its own subject independently.

Indirect statements

Indirect statements use an accusative subject with an infinitive verb:

• Dīcit puerum currere. (He says that the boy is running.)

The main verb (dīcit) agrees with the speaker/thinker in person and number. The infinitive (currere) does not change for person or number. The tense of the infinitive is relative to the main verb: present infinitive for same-time action, perfect for earlier action, future for later action.

Relative clauses

The verb in a relative clause agrees with the relative pronoun, which gets its number and gender from its antecedent. Relative clauses can be indicative or subjunctive depending on their function (purpose, result, characteristic, etc.), but the agreement rules stay the same regardless of mood.

Exceptions to standard rules

Syllepsis

Sometimes agreement follows meaning rather than strict grammatical form. This is called syllepsis:

• pars periērunt (part perished, with a plural verb even though pars is grammatically singular)

The author is thinking of the individuals within the group, so the verb goes plural.

Synesis

Closely related to syllepsis, synesis is agreement according to sense. You'll see it with collective or quantitative expressions:

• mīlia mīlitum missī sunt (thousands of soldiers were sent)

Here mīlia is neuter plural, but missī sunt is masculine plural because the author is thinking of the soldiers (masculine) rather than the abstract number.

Attraction

Occasionally a word gets "pulled" into agreement with a nearby word rather than its logical partner. This is called attraction and most often affects relative pronouns:

• urbem quam statuō vestra est (the city which I am founding is yours)

Attraction is more of a stylistic feature than a rule. You'll encounter it in classical authors, and recognizing it helps you avoid confusion when strict grammar doesn't seem to add up.

Practice and application

Identifying agreement in texts

Pick passages from authors you're reading in class and actively mark subject-verb pairs. Color-coding or underlining helps you see the patterns. Start with simple prose (Caesar is great for this) and work up to more complex sentences with embedded clauses and varied word order.

Correcting agreement errors

Take Latin sentences with deliberate mistakes and fix them. Focus especially on:

• Proximity errors (verb agreeing with the wrong noun)
• Intervening phrases that obscure the real subject
• Compound subjects where the verb number is wrong

Rewriting the same sentence in different word orders while keeping agreement correct is excellent practice.

Composing with proper agreement

Write your own Latin sentences targeting specific agreement challenges: compound subjects, collective nouns, relative clauses. Start with simple sentences and gradually add complexity. Translating short English passages into Latin forces you to make active agreement decisions rather than just recognizing patterns passively.