Grammar Agreement Questions Medium
The rule for agreement with indirect knowledge is that the verb should agree with the subject of the sentence, not the object of the indirect knowledge. In other words, the verb should be in agreement with the person or thing that has the knowledge, rather than the person or thing being talked about. This is because indirect knowledge is often reported or relayed by someone else, so the verb should reflect the subject of the reporting clause. For example:
Incorrect: The teacher said that the students is not studying enough.
Correct: The teacher said that the students are not studying enough.
In this example, the verb "is" does not agree with the subject "students" because it is referring to the indirect knowledge reported by the teacher. The correct verb form "are" agrees with the subject "students" and follows the rule of agreement with indirect knowledge.