SAT® · Reading and Writing: Form, Structure, and Sense — Agreement
Compound Subjects Joined by And
When 'and' connects two nouns, they form one compound subject that counts as more than one thing, so the verb must be plural. Interrupters like 'along with' or 'as well as' don't do this.
'And' is additive. Put 'the curator' and 'the conservator' together with 'and' and you've named two people, not one, so the subject is now plural even though each noun by itself is singular. The verb has to match that new total, not either noun alone. This is the one case in subject-verb agreement where joining words together actually changes the headcount of the subject.
Try it: 'The curator and the conservator disagrees about the restoration.' Find the full subject first: 'the curator and the conservator.' Two people, joined by 'and', equals a plural subject. So the verb must be plural too: 'disagree,' not 'disagrees.' Ignore the singular shape of each noun on its own and look only at what 'and' built.
This sits right next to the test's favorite trick: phrases that look like 'and' but aren't. 'Along with,' 'as well as,' 'together with,' and 'in addition to' all introduce extra information about the subject, but they don't join it the way 'and' does. 'The lead engineer, along with twelve technicians, has signed off' stays singular, because 'along with twelve technicians' is a modifier you could delete and still have a complete sentence. The test plants these phrases between subject and verb precisely so you'll mistake them for 'and' and pick the plural verb. Strip the interrupter, find what's left, and that's your real subject.
Key terms
- compound subject
- Two or more nouns joined by 'and' that together act as one plural subject.
- subject-verb agreement
- The rule that a verb's form must match whether its subject is singular or plural.
- interrupter phrase
- A modifier like 'along with' or 'as well as' that sits next to the subject but doesn't join to it.
- true subject
- The actual noun or nouns a verb must agree with, once modifiers and interrupters are stripped away.
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End of topic.