Can we agree to agree? (Lack of agreement)

It's good for people to be able to agree on things. Life goes much more smoothly when agreements are reached easily and without conflict. It's a fact, though, that nobody agrees 100% of the time.

But there are some cases where agreement is an absolute must. Grammar is one such case.

A key rule of grammar usage is that of subject-verb agreement: A verb must agree with the intended number of its subject.

This means that a plural subject must have a plural verb, and a singular subject must have a singular verb. This can sometimes be difficult, especially when the actual subject of the sentence isn't easily found or its number is uncertain. But even when those road blocks come along, a good writer will still keep trucking to get past it and have a grammatically flawless sentence.

In a Rolling Stone article titled "The Kill Team: How U.S. Soldiers in Afghanistan Murdered Innocent Civilians," Mark Boal did not quite get past the agreement obstacle:

It was the night of January 27th and the platoon was driving along the highway near their forward operating base. Suddenly, through their thermal imaging, they spotted a human heat signature on the side of the road – a potentially suspicious sign, since the Taliban often operate at night, using the cover of darkness to plant IEDs.

Hm. We appear to have a little bit of an issue in agreement here. Platoon is first considered singular and the singular verb "was" is used to describe its action of driving. Within the same sentence, though, Boal switches to a plural construction, referring to the base as "their" base. He then continues using plural terms in the next sentence.

The sentences should have been written the following way:

"It was the night of January 27th and the platoon was driving along the highway near its forward operating base. Suddenly, through thermal imaging, a human heat signature was spotted on the side of the road – a potentially suspicious sign, since the Taliban often operate at night, using the cover of darkness to plant IEDs."

The second sentence could also be worded: "Suddenly, through thermal imaging, the platoon members spotted a human heat signature on the side of the road..."

Simple mistake, easy to fix.

We may sometimes have to agree to disagree in our interactions with people, but when it comes to the rules of grammar, can we please agree to agree?


Boal, Mark. "The Kill Team: How U.S. Soldiers in Afghanistan Murdered Innocent Civilians." Rolling Stone. http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-kill-team-20110327. 27 March 2011.