number of verb
In long, complicated sentences, people often lose track of whether thesubject is singular or plural and use the wrong sort of verb. “Theultimate effect of all of these phone calls to the detectives were tomake them suspicious of the callers” is an error because “effect,” whichis singular, is the subject. If you are uncertain about whether to gowith singular or plural condense the sentence down to its skeleton: “Theeffect . . . was to make them suspicious.”Another situation that creates confusion is the use of interjectionslike “along with,” “as well as,” and “together with,” where they areoften treated improperly as if they meant simply “and.” “Aunt Hilda, aswell as her pet dachshund, is coming to the party” (not “are coming”).A compound subject requires a plural verb even if the words which make it up are themselves singular in form: “widespread mold and mildew damage [not damages] the resale value of your house.”If the title of a work is in the plural, you still use a singular verb because it is just one wo
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