Always look at the subject before anything

... because as how the Mind Your English section of the local newspaper, The Star, insist: 
The subject is king.
Read this article here as it really gives a good explanation on how to determine how the verb agrees with the subject. 
Yes, we are still not done with S-V-A.  :)
A quick summary of the article? Well, it explains how different natures of the subject of sentences have different agreeing verb rules. The different kinds of subjects  and some examples explained are:

1. Noun - (Boy, Cake, Knife)
2. Pronoun - (I, We, You)
3. Gerund - (Nouns with the ending '-ing', such as swimming, reading, cooking )
4. Infinitive - (to-infinitive)
5. Noun Phrase - (Sleeping late, Driving through gravel road, To be a singer)
6. Noun Clause - (That I can eat and watch TV at the same time, The fact that I woke up late)

Do you use plural verbs if your subjects are in the form of gerund? Do you say 'sleeping late is bad' or 'sleeping late are bad'? 
It's tricky! So read along the link given above!