Agree to Agree
Handle collectives, mixed-gender subjects, participles and hay without hesitating — out loud, mid-sentence.
Both are correct — collective nouns like la mayoría, la gente and el equipo take a singular verb by default, but plural agreement is accepted when you're emphasizing the members: la mayoría opina que la reforma ha sido un fracaso (the group as one), la mayoría de los asistentes son jóvenes (the people in it). Mixed-gender subjects default to masculine plural by convention: Juan y María están cansados. And hay is always singular no matter what follows — hay tres libros, había más de doscientas personas, never habían in careful speech. At &Be you don't drill these rules on worksheets — you use them in live spoken conversation until they're automatic.
Below: the sentences that carry each rule, where participles do and don't agree, the direct-to-indirect speech shifts — and a way to rehearse it all out loud with a teacher who talks back.
The warm-up pack
The agreement calls that trip up even confident speakers, decided out loud.
01 · One group, one verb
La mayoría opina que la reforma ha sido un fracaso.
The majority thinks the reform has been a failure.
Treat the group as one thing and the verb stays singular — the safe, formal default.
02 · Same word, plural verb
La mayoría de los asistentes son jóvenes menores de treinta.
Most of the attendees are young people under thirty.
Same la mayoría, but now the focus is on the individual people in it — so the verb goes plural. Both are correct; it's about what you're picturing.
03 · Two genders, one adjective
Los niños y las niñas fueron atendidos con el mismo cuidado.
The boys and girls were looked after with the same care.
Mix a masculine and feminine subject and the adjective defaults to masculine plural — it's a grammar convention, not a comment on either group.
04 · Neither the one nor the other
Ni tu entusiasmo ni tu insistencia van a cambiar mi decisión.
Neither your enthusiasm nor your insistence is going to change my mind.
Two subjects joined by ni... ni still take a plural verb in Spanish, even though English often keeps it singular.
05 · Both of them
Tanto el ministro como la portavoz asistirán a la rueda de prensa.
Both the minister and the spokeswoman will attend the press conference.
Tanto... como links two people as equally present — and like most compound subjects, it pulls a plural verb along with it.
06 · The participle that never changes
Las cartas se han enviado esta misma tarde por mensajería urgente.
The letters have been sent this very afternoon by courier.
After haber, the participle is frozen — enviado, never enviadas, no matter what follows it.
07 · The participle that does change
Se han inaugurado tres nuevas sedes a lo largo del país.
Three new branches have been opened across the country.
Different structure, different rule — this is the pasiva refleja, and here the participle does agree with the noun.
08 · Never plural, no matter what
Había más de doscientas personas en la sala de conferencias.
There were over two hundred people in the conference hall.
Hay, había and hubo stay singular however many people follow — habían is one of the most common slips even native speakers make casually.
09 · Still singular under pressure
Hubo momentos verdaderamente tensos durante la negociación.
There were some genuinely tense moments during the negotiation.
Same rule holding under a plural, emotionally loaded noun — hubo doesn't budge.
10 · Singular even with 'one of the'
Uno de los mejores cirujanos del país trabaja en este hospital.
One of the best surgeons in the country works at this hospital.
The group is plural (los mejores cirujanos), but you're talking about uno — so the verb agrees with that one, not the group.
11 · A percentage stays singular too
El veinte por ciento de los encuestados respondió afirmativamente.
Twenty percent of respondents answered in the affirmative.
Percentages default to the singular verb in careful Spanish, even though 20% clearly means a lot of people.
FLUENT
Finally, someone to talk to in Spanish.
Ten-minute spoken lessons. A teacher who answers back — and gently fixes what you got wrong.
First 10 lessons freeandbefluent.com/spanish/agree-to-agreeRegional Spanish
Textbooks teach one word. Locals use several — pick your region's and stay consistent.
Watch out
The part no drill site can do
Carla
Your grammar teacher for this pack
No flashcards, no fill-in-the-blanks. In the Agree to Agree lessons you talk, and Carla keeps setting agreement traps in real time: describe a group both ways — la mayoría es, then la mayoría son — and defend which feels more natural. Take se publicó el libro, pluralize the noun out loud, and feel the verb shift to se publicaron los libros. Then she hands you a quote — 'esto es mío' — and you recast it as reported speech, que aquello era suyo, deictics and all, in the moment, spoken.
Blank mid-sentence and nothing bad happens — she waits. That's the practice, without unnecessary judgement.
Finish the 6 lessons and Agree to Agree is yours — earned, not given.
First 10 lessons free · 10-minute spoken lessons · your AI coaching team remembers you
Quick answers
Both. Singular is the default and the safe formal choice: la mayoría opina que la reforma ha sido un fracaso. Plural is accepted when the members are in focus: la mayoría de los asistentes son jóvenes.
In careful Spanish, no — hay, había, hubo stay singular whatever follows: había más de doscientas personas en la sala. You will hear the plural in casual Caribbean and Venezuelan speech (habían como veinte personas), but it's censured in educated registers.
Masculine plural, by convention: Juan y María están cansados; los niños y las niñas fueron atendidos con el mismo cuidado. Masculine wins whenever the genders are mixed.
With haber it never changes: se han ido, han llegado. It does agree in the pasiva refleja — se construyeron las casas, se han inaugurado tres nuevas sedes — and as a complement: nos hemos visto obligados a suspender el acto.
More than the tense — demonstratives and possessives shift too: Me dijo: 'Estoy agotada' becomes me dijo que estaba agotada, and Dijo: 'esto es mío' becomes dijo que aquello era suyo. Commands move to the subjunctive: Gritaron que no firmáramos nada.
