Inverted Agreement Answer Key

About This Worksheet

This Grade 7 Language Arts worksheet helps students choose the correct verb in sentences beginning with there. These sentences can be tricky because there appears before the verb, but it is not the true subject. Students must look after the verb to find the noun that controls agreement. For example, “There is a surprise waiting inside the box” uses is because the true subject, surprise, is singular.

Learning Goals

The main goal is to help students recognize inverted sentence order and match the verb with the subject that follows it. Students should already understand basic singular and plural agreement. This activity moves them toward ignoring the opening word there and locating the real subject later in the sentence. It supports CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.7.1, which focuses on correct grammar and subject-verb agreement.

Student Tasks

On this worksheet, students will read ten sentences beginning with there and choose the correct form of is, are, was, or were. The true subjects include singular nouns such as surprise, collection, group, noise, and list, as well as plural nouns such as posters, questions, slices, students, and reasons. Students should underline the true subject before selecting the verb.

Common Challenges

Some students may treat there as the subject and choose the verb by instinct. Others may let a nearby plural noun inside a phrase control the verb instead of the main noun. For example, a collection of rare stamps remains singular because collection is the true subject. Encourage students to turn the sentence around mentally, such as changing “There is a collection” into “A collection is there.”

Teaching Suggestions

A teacher can rewrite several inverted sentences in normal subject-first order. This helps students see that “There are several posters” means the same as “Several posters are there.” At home, a parent can ask the child to point to what actually exists, hangs, waits, or remains in each sentence. That noun is usually the true subject.

Worksheet Features

The worksheet includes ten sentences using present- and past-tense forms of be. Singular and plural subjects are mixed throughout the page, so students must check every example carefully. The repeated sentence pattern allows focused practice with one commonly misunderstood agreement rule. This page works well for direct instruction, homework, intervention, or review.