I recently attended a grammar class, where the trainer explained:
A singular noun and a singular noun take a plural verb.
However, I feel it should have been
A singular noun and a singular noun takes a plural verb.
because the two singular nouns together take the verb, and they cannot be considered two different elements. Is my understanding correct?
Answer
I don't think your intuition is correct in this case. As you yourself said, " the two singular nouns together take the verb". Note that you used the plural verb "take" in this context. "A singular noun and a singular noun" refers to two nouns, and even if they are considered to form a single unit, it's still a grammatically plural construction. Plural agreement is definitely possible, as is typically the case for "compound subjects" consisting of two singular noun phrases joined by "and". (I don't know whether I would say that the use of a plural verb is mandatory in this sentence—your suggestion of "A singular noun and a singular noun takes a plural verb" doesn't sound terribly bad to me—but plural agreement is definitely not prohibited in this context).
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