Compound Subjects: Meaning, Types And Examples
What are Compound Subjects?
In simple terms, compound subjects are formed by joining two things with one of the coordinating conjunctions “and,” “or,” or “nor.” It consists of two or more simple subjects.
Example: Unfortunately, my wife and I cannot attend the event tonight.
In the above example, my wife and I is a compound subject. It consists of two simple subjects ‘my wife’ and ‘I’.
Subject-Verb Agreement For Compound Subjects
The Subject in a sentence is typically the person/thing/animal that performs the action.
Example: The dog is barking.
In the above sentence, ‘dog’ is the subject. And since, it is a singular subject the verb used is also in the singular form.
Let’s take another example: The dogs are barking.
In this sentence, the subject is plural — ‘dogs’ and therefore, the verb is also plural — ‘are’.
This is the basic rule that all simple subjects follow. But what happens in case of Compound subjects?
Compound Subjects formed with ‘And’
If the compound subject is formed using ‘and’ then you should always use a plural verb.
Example:
- Sagar and I are going to the park today.
- The dogs and the cats are running around in circles.
- Julie and Julia were upset last night as their favourite team lost the match.
In all of the above sentences, you can see that there are two subjects co-joined with ‘and’. Therefore, a plural verb is used with them as they are treated as a plural subject.
Compound Subjects formed with ‘Or’ and ‘Nor’
When you form a compound subject using “or” or “nor,” the correct verb form depends on the term closest to the verb. When this is a singular noun, we use a singular verb.
Example:
- Either Priya or Raghav is going to open the ceremony tonight.
- Either the cat or the dog is going up the vent.
In the above two sentences, the subjects closest to the verb ‘Raghav’ and the ‘dog’ are singular. Therefore, the verb used is also singular.
But when the term closest to the verb is a plural noun, we use a plural verb.
Example:
- Jagan or his friends are coming home for dinner.
- Neither the dog nor the cats are listening to me.
Here, the subjects closest to the verb are ‘friends’ and ‘cats’ and since they are plural in nature, the verbs used will also be plural.
Singular Compound Subjects
There are some special cases where we treat compound subjects formed with the conjunction “and” as singular. This is usually when two things are typically seen together.
Example:
- Gin and tonic is my favorite drink.
- Fish and chips is a traditional British dish.
In these cases, we use the singular verb “is” because “gin and tonic” and “fish and chips” are usually treated as a single thing (i.e., the terms are usually used together). Thus, if we used plural verbs in the sentences above, it would seem like we were discussing two separate things.
We hope this article helped you!