Subject-Verb Agreement and Paired Conjunctions

Look at the sentences below. Pay close attention to the form of the verb in each sentence. What changes do you notice?

Ø Example #1: Both the players and the coach were disappointed by the loss.
 

Ø Example #2: Not only the players but also the coach was disappointed by the loss.
 

Ø Example #2a: Not only the coach but also the players were disappointed by the loss.
 

These three sentences communicate basically the same idea: the players and the coach were all disappointed because they lost a game. However, the verb is plural in examples #1 and #2a and singular in example #2. Let’s look at them one by one to see what’s going on:

Example #1:

Both the players and the coach were disappointed by the loss.

Explanation: In this sentence our subjects (the players and the coach) are connected by the paired conjunction both … and …. Here’s a little rule you’ll want to remember about subjects like these:

 Rule: Subjects that are connected by both … and … always take a plural verb.  

So we could rewrite the sentence this way …

Example 1a:

Both the coach and the players were disappointed by the loss.

… and the verb would still be plural. That seems easy enough, right? Well, don’t get too relaxed because this is where things get more interesting.

Let’s take another look at examples #2 and #2a  from above:

Ø  Example #2:

Not only the players but also the coach was disappointed by the loss.

Ø  Example #2a:

Not only the coach but also the players were disappointed by the loss.

You should notice that the differences between these two sentences are 1) the order of the two subjects and 2) the form of the verbs. In example #2, the players comes first and the coach comes second, while in example #2a, the coach comes first and the players comes second.

In examples #1 and #1a above we saw that changing the order of the subjects doesn’t affect the verb form when you use both … and … to connect your subjects. This is not true, however, when you use not only … but also … , either … or …, or neither … nor … to connect your subjects. Here’s another little rule to keep in mind.

Rule: When you use not only … but also …, either … or …, or neither … nor … to connect two subjects, the subject closest to the verb determines if the verb is singular or plural.

Let’s see how this rule is in operation in examples #2 and #2a:

Ø  Example #2:

Not only the players but also the coach was disappointed by the loss.

                                                                        singular                            singular
                                                                  noun                                 verb

Ø  Example #2a:

Here are some more examples that show how this rule operates:

Ø  Example 3:

Ø  Example 3a:

Ø      Example 4:

Ø      Example 4a: