Grammar
The error examiners see more often than any other, and the easiest to fix. With an error correction exercise.
Subject-verb agreement in IELTS is the most frequent error in the whole writing test, and it is not usually a gap in knowledge. Candidates know that a singular subject takes a singular verb; what defeats them is finding the subject when several words sit between it and the verb.
Because it repeats, it does real damage. A single slip is treated as a slip, but the same error twenty times across an essay is treated as evidence about your level.
The rules
Six situations that cause almost every agreement error in the test.
In the effect of these policies on rural communities, the subject is the effect, so the verb is singular. Everything between the head noun and the verb is there to distract you.
The number of students has risen is singular, because the subject is the number. A number of students have complained is plural, because a number of simply means several.
Information is, research shows, advice is, equipment was, news is. None of them takes a plural verb, and none of them takes a plural s.
People are, never people is. The same applies to the police, which takes a plural verb even though it has no s.
All three take a singular verb: each student has, every country faces, one of the main problems is. The plural noun after one of is the usual trap.
There is and there are agree with what follows, not with there. Write there are several reasons, and take particular care in speaking, where there is slips out by default.
Method
Six ways this earns marks under Grammatical Range and Accuracy.
Go through the essay looking at verbs and nothing else. Reading for every possible error at once reliably catches none of them.
Hide everything between the head noun and the verb, and the correct form becomes obvious immediately.
Information, advice, research, equipment, knowledge, furniture, news, progress. Eight words, and they account for a large share of the errors on this point.
People who lives is a version of the same error. The verb agrees with the noun the clause describes.
The final s on the verb is the form most often dropped under time pressure, and it is the most visible when missing.
The same criterion is used there. Rehearsing a few stock sentences correctly reduces the number of times the error appears.
Practice
Each sentence contains one error. Choose the correction.
Read the whole sentence before you choose. Every option below is a real form of English, so the question is not which word exists but which one this sentence needs.
This is how examiners see your writing: not as rules broken, but as sentences that do or do not work.
1Correct the error: The number of people using public transport have increased sharply.
Has increased. The subject is the number, which is singular. Of people using public transport only describes it, and everything in that phrase is designed to pull you towards a plural.
2Correct the error: The information provided by the researchers were incomplete.
Was incomplete. Information is uncountable and takes a singular verb. The plural researchers sitting next to the verb is what causes the error.
3Correct the error: One of the main problems facing cities are traffic congestion.
Is traffic congestion. The subject is one, so the verb is singular. Of the main problems is a plural phrase describing it, not the subject itself.
4Correct the error: Many people believes that the internet has made us less social.
Believe. People is already plural, so the verb takes no s. Peoples exists but means separate nations, which is not what the sentence needs.
5Correct the error: There is several reasons why this policy has failed.
There are. The verb agrees with what follows, and reasons is plural. This one appears constantly in speaking, where there is comes out automatically.
6Correct the error: Each of the four proposals have significant drawbacks.
Has. Each is singular, whatever follows it. The same is true of every, either and neither.
That is normal, and it is the whole problem with grammar study. Recognising an error in a sentence someone has told you contains one is far easier than finding it in your own essay, where every sentence looks correct because you wrote it.
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Choosing the right option from four is not the same as producing the structure accurately under time in an essay.
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Has. The subject is the number, which is singular. A number of students have is plural, because there a number of just means several.
Both are now accepted. The data show is traditional in academic writing and the data shows is widely used. Choose one and stay with it.
It is the ordinary plural of person, so it takes a plural verb. Peoples means separate ethnic or national groups and is rarely what you want.
Yes. Grammatical Range and Accuracy is assessed in the speaking test using the same descriptors, and dropped third-person s is audible.
A single slip counts for little. The problem is that this error repeats, and a pattern of errors is what moves a band down.
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