Lecture 2

Lecture 2: Subjects Connected by Paired Conjunctions

As we have seen, subjects that are far away from their verbs can be hard to find, and, as a result, it can be difficult to make sure we are using the correct verb form (i.e. singular or plural) with them. Similarly, subjects that are connected by paired conjunctions can also confuse a writer trying to choose the correct verb to go with them. Do you know what paired conjunctions are? I’m sure you’ll recognize them if we just look at a few examples:

Paired Conjunction	Meaning	Example
both … and …	Connects additional information; has a meaning similar to AND	Both the students and the professor benefit when web technology is used to enhance a class.
not only … but also …	Connects additional information; has a meaning similar to AND	Not only chat rooms but also email is useful for facilitating communication among classmates beyond the classroom.
either … or …	Connects two choices, alternatives or options; has a meaning similar to OR	Either the professor of a course or the teaching assistants need to accept responsibility for maintaining the content of a course’s website.
neither … nor …	Connects additional information but in a negative sentence; carries a negative meaning; means something close to AND + NOT	Neither a school’s administration nor the professors have the right to use students’ email addresses for anything other than school business.

Hopefully, these structures look familiar. The dilemma they pose is whether to use a singular or plural verb with them. After all, they connect two subjects, so it’s natural to assume that they take a plural verb. This is true in one case only: BOTH … AND …. Let’s look at back at our example. Notice the subjects (highlighted in orange) and the form of the verb (highlighted in purple):

Example 1a: Both the students and the professor benefit when web technology is used to enhance a class.

In this sentence the first subject (THE STUDENTS) is plural, while the second subject (THE PROFESSOR) is singular. What about the verb: is it singular or plural? Hopefully, you recognize that to be a plural verb (BENEFIT). What if we rewrite the sentence like this, though:

Example 1b: Both the professor and the students benefit when web technology is used to enhance a class.

Do you see the difference? We simply changed the order of the subjects. Now THE PROFESSOR (singular) is the first subject and THE STUDENTS (plural) is the second subject. Did the verb change? Nope, it sure didn’t! That’s because … (here comes a rule … you might want to write it down):

Rule #1: Subjects connected by BOTH … AND … always take a plural verb.

So the order of the subjects doesn’t matter when they’re connected by BOTH … AND … because this paired conjunction always calls for a plural verb. That seems easy enough, doesn’t it? Well, don’t relax just yet because we’re not exactly done here. There’s another little rule we need to learn. Before we get to it, though, let’s look back at one of our other sentences connected by a paired conjunction:

Example 2a: Not only chat rooms but also email is useful for facilitating communication among classmates beyond the classroom.

Again we’re going to focus on the order of the subjects and the form (singular vs. plural) of the verb. In this sentence our first subject (CHAT ROOMS) is plural, and our second subject (EMAIL) is singular. What about the verb? Do you see that it’s a singular verb? Now let’s perform the same switch that we did with the other sentence:

Example 2b: Not only email but also chat rooms are useful for facilitating communication among classmates beyond the classroom.

Now EMAIL (singular) is first, and CHAT ROOMS (plural) is second. Did our verb change? Yep! This time it did. Now we need a plural verb! But why!?! Get your pencils ready because here comes another rule:

Rule #2: In the case of subjects connected by
NOT ONLY … BUT ALSO …
EITHER … OR …
NEITHER … NOR …
the subject that is closest to the verb determines if the verb is singular or plural.

Does that make sense? In other words, in sentences that employ the paired conjunctions listed in the box above, we have to find the two subjects, focus on the subject that is closest to the verb and determine if it is singular or plural. If it is singular, we use a singular verb. If it is plural, we use a plural verb. Returning to Examples 2a and 2b, we can clearly see that rule in action. In Example 2a, EMAIL (singular) is closest to the verb, so we use the singular IS; in example 2b, CHAT ROOMS (plural) is closest to the verb, so we use the plural ARE. Let’s apply it to the other two sentences we saw at the beginning of this lecture:

Example 3a: Either the professor of a course or the teaching assistants need to accept responsibility for maintaining the content of a course’s website.

The subject closest to the verb is ASSISTANTS. ASSISTANTS is plural, so we use a plural verb: NEED.

Example 3b: Either the teaching assistants or the professor of a course needs to accept responsibility for maintaining the content of a course’s website.

The subject closest to the verb is PROFESSOR (COURSE is the object of the preposition OF. Remember: the object of a preposition can never be the subject of a sentence). PROFESSOR is singular, so we use a singular verb: NEEDS.

Example 4a: Neither a school’s administration nor the professors have the right to use students’ email addresses for anything other than school business.

The subject closest to the verb is PROFESSORS. PROFESSORS is plural, so we use a plural verb: HAVE.

Example 4b: Neither the professors nor a school’s administration has the right to use students’ email addresses for anything other than school business.

The subject closest to the verb is ADMINISTRATION. ADMINISTRATION is singular, so we use a singular verb: HAS.

OK, did you write down the two rules that we looked at in this section of our unit? I hope so because we’re about to do some practice and you’ll probably want to refer to them during the exercise. There’s still time to go back and write them down if you haven’t already.

Are you ready to practice? Great! On the next screen, you will choose the verb form (singular or plural) that correctly completes each sentence. The paired conjunctions have been bolded to help you.