If ‘Jack and Mary’ were replaced by the pronoun ‘they’, the
plural form of the verb would automatically be used. If you
are in doubt, replace the nouns with a pronoun to find the
correct form of the verb.
Adding a phrase
Sometimes a singular noun is followed by a phrase which
contains a plural noun. In this case the verb is connected to
the singular noun and will therefore be singular.
The award winningathlete, with all his team mates,was
invited to Berlin.‘Athlete’ is singular so it is followed by the singular form of
the verb, ‘was invited’. If both nouns had been incorporated
into a noun phrase as thesubjectof the sentence, the plural
form of the verb would have been used.
The award winning athlete and all his team mates were
invited to Berlin.‘The award winning athlete and all his team mates’ is a noun
phrase acting as the subject of the sentence. It is plural so the
plural form of the verb follows.
Looking at exceptions
There are some expressions which contain two nouns
so closely linked with each other that they are almost in-
separable. Because of this, it has become acceptable to use
the singular form of the verb. Most of them seem to be
involved with food!
114 / IMPROVE YOUR PUNCTUATION & GRAMMAR