Subject-Verb Agreement

In Spanish, every conjugated verb must agree with its subject in two ways: person (who's doing the action) and number (singular or plural). This agreement is strict — there is no such thing as a "default" verb form that ignores the subject. Getting agreement right is one of the first grammar skills you develop.

The six grammatical persons

Spanish verbs have six possible "persons," organized into three categories (first, second, third) and two numbers (singular, plural). In Latin American Spanish, the vosotros form is not used, so you effectively have five.

Each person has its own unique verb ending in every tense.

The five forms are all different, yet the stem (cant-) is shared. The ending alone tells you who the subject is.

The golden rule: endings match subjects

A singular subject takes a singular verb; a plural subject takes a plural verb. Mismatch is a grammar error.

Notice the verb changes from trabaja to trabajan depending on the number of the subject. The subject noun is what controls the verb — not the object, not adverbs, nothing else.

Usted and ustedes: formal you

Usted and ustedes are the formal "you" pronouns. Despite meaning "you," they take third-person verb forms. This surprises learners at first.

Why? Historically, usted comes from vuestra merced ("your grace"), which is a third-person phrase. The grammar stuck even though the meaning became "you."

Dropping the subject pronoun

Because the verb ending already tells you who the subject is, Spanish usually omits subject pronouns. Including yo, tú, nosotros, etc. is only needed for emphasis or contrast.

No nosotros appears — the -mos ending says everything. Adding nosotros would sound redundant unless you were contrasting yourself with someone else.

Collective nouns are singular

Nouns like gente ("people"), familia ("family"), equipo ("team"), and mayoría ("majority") are grammatically singular in Spanish, even though they refer to multiple individuals.

English speakers often want to say la gente hablan, but that's incorrect. Gente is singular, so the verb must be singular too. The same applies to equipo, grupo, multitud, and other collectives.

Compound subjects

When two or more subjects are joined by y, the verb is plural.

If the subjects are of mixed person, Spanish uses the "higher" person: first person beats second, and second beats third.

Word order and agreement

Spanish word order is flexible — the subject doesn't have to come first. But agreement still depends on the subject, wherever it lands.

In this sentence, libros is the grammatical subject of gustan, so the verb is plural. The me is an indirect object, not the subject. This is a classic trap for English speakers.

The subject mis primos comes after the verb, but the verb still agrees with it (llegaron, plural).

Agreement across tenses

Agreement works the same in every tense. Whether you're in the present, preterite, subjunctive, or conditional, the verb matches the subject.

Vengan (present subjunctive, 3rd plural) agrees with ustedes, even inside a subordinate clause.

Subject-verb agreement is a rule you cannot break. Luckily, once you internalize the verb endings for a few tenses, agreement becomes automatic. Your ear starts to notice mismatches before your brain does.