SAT® · Reading and Writing: Form, Structure, and Sense — Agreement
Compound Subjects Joined by Or and Nor
When a compound subject is joined by or or nor, the verb does not agree with both nouns together. It agrees with whichever noun sits closest to it.
And glues two subjects into one combined unit, so a verb after 'the dog and the cat' has to be plural because both animals are doing the action. Or and nor work differently: they present a choice between the two nouns, not a combination of them. The verb only ever belongs to one noun at a time, so English picks the one written closest to the verb and ignores the other one's number entirely.
This is why test questions stack a plural noun far from the verb and a singular one right next to it, or the reverse. Read 'Either the senators or the governor signs the bill' and the ear wants a plural verb because senators is plural and feels like the main subject. But the governor is the noun touching the verb, it's singular, so the verb is singular: signs. Swap the order to 'Either the governor or the senators sign the bill' and the verb becomes plural, because now senators sits next to it. Same logic covers nor: 'Neither the dogs nor the cat was fed' is correct because cat, the nearer noun, is singular, even though dogs is plural.
This sits next to subject-verb agreement questions built around interrupters like prepositional phrases or parenthetical clauses. Both tests punish the same instinct: grabbing the nearest-sounding or most memorable noun instead of tracing the sentence's actual grammatical structure. The fix is identical too — find the exact noun touching the verb and ignore everything else.
Key terms
- Compound subject
- Two or more nouns connected by a conjunction that together function as the subject of a sentence.
- Proximity rule
- The rule that when subjects are joined by or or nor, the verb agrees with the nearer subject.
- Correlative conjunction
- A paired connecting word set, like either/or or neither/nor, that links two subjects as alternatives.
- Interrupter
- A word or phrase placed between subject and verb that doesn't change which noun the verb must agree with.
Watch it explained
- How it worksHow does the proximity rule hand the verb to whichever noun sits nearest when 'or' or 'nor' joins them?
- Common mistakeWhy isn't 'Neither the dogs nor the cat were fed' correct when most of the animals named are plural?
- Worked exampleWalk me through the verb for 'Either the senators or the governor sign the bill'.
Check yourself
End of topic.