Agreement with "As Well As", "Together With", "Along With"
5 exercises — practise verb agreement when the subject is followed by a parenthetical addition phrase.
0 / 5 completed
1 / 5
Choose the sentence with correct subject-verb agreement.
"The primary database, as well as its two read replicas, is being upgraded tonight" is correct: "as well as + noun phrase" is a parenthetical addition, not a coordinating conjunction, so it does not make the subject plural; the verb agrees with the singular subject "the primary database", giving "is". Option B incorrectly uses the plural "are", treating "as well as" like "and". Option C uses the plural past "were", also incorrectly treating the phrase as pluralizing the subject. Option D uses an ungrammatical "have being" construction.
2 / 5
Which sentence correctly applies agreement with "together with" adding a parenthetical detail?
"The lead engineer, together with two contractors, was assigned to the incident" is correct: "together with" introduces a parenthetical addition rather than compounding the subject, so the verb still agrees with the singular "the lead engineer", giving "was". Option B incorrectly uses the plural "were". Option C incorrectly uses a plural present perfect "have been". Option D incorrectly uses the plural present "are", all treating "together with" as if it were "and".
3 / 5
Select the sentence with correct agreement using "along with" in a deployment report.
"The billing service, along with its background workers, needs a restart after this patch" is correct: "along with" adds a parenthetical detail rather than joining subjects, so the verb agrees with the singular "the billing service", giving "needs". Option B incorrectly uses the plural "need". Option C uses an unnatural plural continuous form that also mismatches the singular subject. Option D omits the finite auxiliary, leaving an incomplete verb phrase.
4 / 5
Which sentence correctly contrasts "and" (which does pluralize the subject) with "as well as" (which does not)?
"The frontend and the backend are both affected, but the frontend, as well as its CDN cache, is being redeployed first" is correct: "and" genuinely joins two subjects, requiring the plural "are", while "as well as" merely adds a parenthetical detail to the singular "the frontend", requiring "is". Option B reverses both choices incorrectly. Option C correctly handles "and" but wrongly pluralizes after "as well as". Option D wrongly uses a singular verb after "and" and, inconsistently, a singular verb after "as well as" too, though the second happens to be right for the wrong structural reason since the first is wrong.
5 / 5
Choose the sentence with correct agreement in a release note using "in addition to", which behaves the same way as "as well as".
"This release, in addition to several bug fixes, includes a new caching layer" is correct: "in addition to" behaves like "as well as", adding a parenthetical detail without pluralizing the subject, so the verb agrees with the singular "this release", giving "includes". Option B incorrectly uses the plural "include". Option C uses a non-finite "including" with no auxiliary, leaving the sentence incomplete. Option D incorrectly uses the plural "are including", mismatching the singular subject.