{"id":11113,"date":"2021-02-15T16:16:14","date_gmt":"2021-02-15T21:16:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.roshreview.com\/?p=10950"},"modified":"2022-05-03T08:11:29","modified_gmt":"2022-05-03T08:11:29","slug":"subject-verb-agreement-with-compound-subjects","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.roshreview.com\/blog\/subject-verb-agreement-with-compound-subjects\/","title":{"rendered":"Subject-Verb Agreement with Compound Subjects"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>This month\u2019s topic is an offshoot of <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.roshreview.com\/blog\/lauras-lessons\/what-is-subject-verb-agreement-and-how-do-you-do-it\/\" target=\"_blank\">subject-verb agreement<\/a>: how to make your subject and verbs agree when your subject involves more than one thing (a \u201ccompound subject\u201d). That\u2019s easy, right? Shouldn\u2019t more than one thing mean it\u2019s a plural subject and the verb should be plural? Sometimes, but not always. Let&#8217;s look at some examples.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p>When a subject is linked by the word \u201cand,\u201d the verb is typically plural.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"has-background has-very-light-gray-background-color\"><strong>Throat lozenges<\/strong>,<strong> hot tea<\/strong>,<strong> honey<\/strong>, <strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">and<\/span> smoking cessation <span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">help<\/span> improve the cough<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n<p>The subject is a list of multiple things that all help improve this patient\u2019s cough\u2014these multiple things take a plural verb.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>An exception to this is if the words joined by \u201cand\u201d are thought of as one thing:<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"has-background has-very-light-gray-background-color\"><strong>Suction dilation <span style=\"color: #008000;\">and<\/span> curettage <span style=\"color: #008000;\">is<\/span> performed<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n<p>Dilation and curettage is the name of one procedure, not two separate procedures. Even though it includes \u201cand,\u201d it gets a singular verb because it is one thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What if your subjects are joined by \u201cand\u201d but you\u2019re not sure if they\u2019re one entity or multiple? Try swapping in a simpler noun to help clarify the sentence:<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"has-background has-very-light-gray-background-color\"><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>These items<\/strong> [<\/span><strong>help<\/strong><\/span>\/<strong>helps<\/strong>]<strong> improve the cough<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #008000;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>The procedure<\/strong><\/span><span style=\"color: #993300;\"> <\/span><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">[<\/span><\/span><strong>is<\/strong><\/span>\/<strong>are<\/strong>]<strong> performed<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n<p>How about subjects joined by \u201cor,\u201d which is often seen in lists? Here\u2019s how to handle their associated verbs:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>1. Use a <strong>singular verb<\/strong> if all items in the subject are <strong>singular<\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"has-background has-very-light-gray-background-color\"><strong>An NP<\/strong>, <strong>PA<\/strong>, <strong><span style=\"color: #008000;\">or<\/span> doctor<\/strong> <span style=\"color: #008000;\"><strong>is<\/strong><\/span> <strong>in the room<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n<p>2. Use a <strong>plural verb<\/strong> if all items are <strong>plural<\/strong>:&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"has-background has-very-light-gray-background-color\"><strong>Some NPs<\/strong>, <strong>PAs<\/strong>, <strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">or<\/span> doctors <span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">are<\/span> needed to weigh in on this subject<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n<p>3. If there\u2019s a <strong>mix of singular and plural<\/strong> subjects, match the <strong>verb to the closest noun<\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"has-background has-very-light-gray-background-color\"><strong>The NP<\/strong>, <strong>PA<\/strong>, <strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">or<\/span> doctors <span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">are<\/span> going to be here later<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n<p>\u201cDoctors\u201d is the plural noun closest to the verb.<br><\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"has-background has-very-light-gray-background-color\"><strong>Neither the PAs <span style=\"color: #008000;\">nor<\/span> the NP <span style=\"color: #008000;\">is<\/span> scheduled today<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe NP\u201d is the singular noun closest to the verb.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>An even simpler way to think about subjects joined by \u201cor\u201d is to just match the noun closest to the verb. If the noun is plural, use a plural verb, and use a singular verb if the noun is singular.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p>There you have it! If your subjects are joined by \u201cand,\u201d multiple items take a plural verb while singular entities take a singular verb. If your subjects are joined by \u201cor,\u201d match the verb to the closest noun.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This month\u2019s topic is an offshoot of subject-verb agreement: how to make your subject and verbs agree when your subject involves more than one thing (a \u201ccompound subject\u201d). That\u2019s easy, right? Shouldn\u2019t more than one thing mean it\u2019s a plural subject and the verb should be plural? Sometimes, but not always. Let&#8217;s look at some <a href=\"https:\/\/www.roshreview.com\/blog\/subject-verb-agreement-with-compound-subjects\/\">read more&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":11203,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1996,1998],"tags":[2735],"coauthors":[3822],"class_list":["post-11113","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blogtype","category-lauras-lessons","tag-grammar"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v21.7 (Yoast SEO v26.6) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Subject-Verb Agreement with Compound Subjects - RoshReview.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Subject Verb Agreement With Compound Subjects Learn in a minute what you should&#039;ve learned in third grade.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.roshreview.com\/blog\/subject-verb-agreement-with-compound-subjects\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Subject-Verb Agreement with Compound Subjects\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Subject Verb Agreement With Compound Subjects Learn in a minute what you should&#039;ve learned in third grade.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.roshreview.com\/blog\/subject-verb-agreement-with-compound-subjects\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"RoshReview.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-02-15T21:16:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-05-03T08:11:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.roshreview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/04\/LaurasLessons_2021_1200x630.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"630\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Laura Wilkinson\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.roshreview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/04\/LaurasLessons_2021_1012x506.png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Laura Wilkinson\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.roshreview.com\/blog\/subject-verb-agreement-with-compound-subjects\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.roshreview.com\/blog\/subject-verb-agreement-with-compound-subjects\/\",\"name\":\"Subject-Verb Agreement with Compound Subjects - 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