ABE English Tutorials/simple sentences/Compound Subjects

COMPOUND SENTENCE

We have been learning to add information in a sentence: by adding modifiers (adjectives and adverbs) by adding objects and phrases by changing the verb to fit the situation

Now we'll add some information to the subject.

Self Assessment

See if you can find the subject in the following sentence: Carmen lives on the east side of town.Did you choose Carmen as the subject of this sentence? The verb "lives" goes with the singular subject "Carmen".Now look at this sentence: Her sisters live there, too.Did you choose her sisters as the subject of this sentence? The verb "live" goes with the plural subject "her sisters". Now look at this sentence: Carmen and her sisters live on the east side of town.

There are two subjects in this sentence: Carmen and her sisters. When a sentence has more than one subject, the subjects are called compound subjects. When compound subjects are joined together with the word "and", they must use the plural form of the verb. Compound subjects, joined with the word "and", always take the plural form of the verb. How can you be sure that you are using the plural form of the verb? Remove the compound subjects, substitute the word "they", and see if the sentence still makes sense:

The boy and his friend like to go skateboarding. They like to go skateboarding. Another kind of sentence has compound subjects joined together with the combination of either.....or, or neither.....nor.

Self Assessment

Have a look at these examples: Either the mother cat or her kittens were playing with that ball. Either the kittens or their mother was playing with that ball. Neither the students nor their teacher has remembered the test. Neither the teacher nor his students have remembered the test.

Did you notice how the form of the verb changed in these pairs of sentences? Deciding on the correct form of the verb when you are using either....or, or neither.....nor, requires one extra step:

Activity

Compound subjects which are joined together with "either....or", or "neither.....nor", use the form of the verb that goes with the subject closest to the verb. In the first example above: Either the mother cat or her kittens were playing with that ball. ... the verb is were playing. The subject which is closest to the verb is her kittens. When we read them together, we have: ...her kittens were playing with that ball. ... which sounds right. If we had, instead, "....her kittens was playing..." it would sound incorrect. But in the next example: Either the kittens or their mother was playing with that ball. ...the subject which is closest to the verb is their mother. When we put subject and verb together, we have: ...their mother was playing with that ball. .... which is correct. ("their mother were playing...." would be wrong.

CONCLUSION

The combination not only ..... but also works the same way as the neither .... nor combination, as in these examples:

1. Not only the flowers but also the maple tree was affected by the dry weather.
2. Not only the maple tree but also the flowers were affected by the dry