Concord: “Ade as well as Olu come or comes?”

Have you ever come across a sentence like “Ade as well as Olu come to school early” and wondered if “come” should be “comes”? Many English learners find this confusing because it involves a special type of subject-verb agreement, also known as concord. This brings us to the accompaniment rule and the issue of false subjects in English.

The Accompaniment Rule

The accompaniment rule states that when a singular subject is followed by an additional noun using phrases like “as well as,” “along with,” “together with,” “in addition to,” and similar expressions, the verb agrees only with the main subject, not the accompanying noun.

For example:
✅ Ade, as well as Olu, comes to school early. (The verb agrees with “Ade.”)
❌ Ade, as well as Olu, come to school early. (Incorrect because “come” suggests a plural subject.)

Let’s look at more examples:

• The teacher, along with the students, is preparing for the exam. (“Teacher” is singular, so we use “is.”)
• My brother, in addition to his friends, plays football every evening. (“Brother” is singular, so we use “plays.”)
• The manager, together with his assistants, has arrived. (“Manager” is singular, so we use “has.”)

Even though there are multiple people involved, the verb agrees only with the first subject because the other nouns are simply additional information.

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False Subjects in English

Another source of confusion in concord is false subjects. A false subject occurs when a sentence begins with a word that looks like the subject but isn’t actually what the verb should agree with.

Take this sentence:
❌ The number of students are increasing.

At first glance, “students” seems like the subject, but the true subject is “The number” (which is singular). The correct sentence is:
✅ The number of students is increasing.

Compare it with:
✅ A number of students are attending the event.

Here, “A number of” means “many,” so the real subject is “students” (plural), and the verb should be plural too.

Other examples:

• The quality of the apples is not good. (“Quality” is singular.)
• The percentage of errors has dropped. (“Percentage” is singular.)
• The list of participants is ready. (“List” is singular, not “participants.”)