Name: English Grammar: Compound Subjects & Verb Agreement
Uploaded: 2020-07-30T16:25:43.000Z
Duration: 11 min 2 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

In today's video we're going to look at the "Compound Subject".

So this is a grammar lesson, and it doesn't matter if you're a beginner or advanced, it's

very important to understand this because it's very easy to make mistakes, especially

So, we're going to start by looking at the subject.

The subject is the thing in the sentence or in the clause that is going to do the action

or is going to be in the situation of the "be" verb, if it's not an action verb.

And we always have to make sure that our subject and our verb agree.

They must agree, especially in terms of number.

If you have a singular subject, you must have a singular verb.

So let's look at this example: "The doctor is off this week."

So when we're talking about the doctor, there's one doctor, his or her situation is that he

Now, we're going to look at compounds in terms of taking two pieces and making one subject

We're going to look at "and" and we're going to look at "or", "either", "or", "neither",

But we're going to look at "or" after, we're going to start with "and".

First thing you need to remember about "and", it works like a plus sign.

So, when you take two individual subjects and you join them together, you're creating

a two-or-more situation, or a two-or-more subject, therefore you have a plural subject.

So: "The doctor and the nurse are off", so plural, whereas you had singular.

Now, it doesn't matter if you have plural pieces.

"The doctor and the nurse are", "The doctors and the nurse are", "The doctors and the nurses

are", any combination because you're joining them into a group and now they are plural

Now, it's very important to remember that we're talking about compounds and we're using

a compound conjunction, but if you use: "The doctors"...

"The doctor as well as the nurses are off this week", would this be correct?

No, it would not because you're not making a compound.

"The doctor", but if you had: "The doctors as well as the nurses are off this week",

that is correct because then you would still have a plural to a plural.

Now: "as well as", "along with", "together with", "accompanied by", all of these expressions

So we only have a compound subject when we have a compound conjunction joining them.

But there are situations where you're going to have a compound, but you still have a singular

"Spaghetti and meatballs is delicious", not "are".

Because this is a grouped thing, they always go together.

Even though you're joining them, they are basically one item.

"Peanut butter and jelly is my favourite snack", or "Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are

my favourite snack", but then you're using it as an adjective.

If it's one piece, if it's a collective, then it's singular.

If it's two separate items, then you're making a compound and then you have a plural.

Look at this one: "The founder and CEO of the company is ready to sell", "The founder

and CEO of the company are ready to sell".

You can have one person who is both the founder of the company and the CEO of the company.

So if this and this refer to the same person, then it's a singular subject and you're using "is".

If the founder and the CEO are two different people, then you're creating a compound, you

have a plural, and then you have "are" as correct.

So it's very important to understand what the two pieces on either side of "and" are

Are they two separate things, or are they one combined thing?

I'm going to give you some more examples after so you'll get an idea, but first let's look at "or".

Okay, let's look at the compound conjunction: "or".

"Neither Tom nor his sister likes to cook", "Neither Tom nor his sisters like to cook".

Basically what you have to remember about "or" or "nor" is that the verb will agree

So, if the second part is singular, the verb will match singular.

If the second noun is plural, the verb will match plural.

So: "sisters like", "sister likes", same with "or".

"Either Jill or Kevin needs to be let go."

So, I'm a company, I need to make some cuts in the budget, I need to fire one of these

So: "Either Jill or Kevin needs to be let go."

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English Grammar: Compound Subjects & Verb Agreement

individual

mindset

situation

basically