The words 'together with', 'along with', 'as well as' and

Question

The words 'together with', 'along with', 'as well as' and 'in addition to' do not make the subject plural e.g;

1)  Eric  along with Emiley  is  going for a walk.
2)  Steve  together with his friends  is  playing soccer.

With reference to above rule please suggest if the following is correct as I find it a little awkward on reading:

1)  I  along with Emiley  am  going for a walk 
2)  I  together with my friends  am  playing soccer.

Whenever there is 'I' in the subject, the helping verb 'am' doesn't correct to me. Please suggest if I am misunderstanding something?

KyleWiddison · Answer

The use of 'am' is correct in the sentences you provided, but the word sounds strange to you because the construction isn't typical. Normally you would say "I am going on a walk with Emily" or even "I, along with Emily, am going on a walk." You still treat the subject 'I' as singular unless you are making a compound subject using the word 'and'. "Emily and I (now a compound, or plural, subject) ARE going on a walk."

KW

Posted from my mobile device

KW

Posted from my mobile device

mohan514 · Answer

sir can you please further differentiate all the three usages
along with
together with,
 as well as

thanks in advance

mneeti · Answer

Mohan, to my understanding, all the three i.e. along with, together with, and as well as have similar treatment in grammar.

With the presence of either of these in a sentence, the verb takes colour from the subject like in the initial example -  Eric along with Emiley is going for a walk , here ' is ' is used because  Eric  is  singular . Instead of 'along with' even if ' together with' or 'as well as' was used in the sentence, we would have used 'is'. 
Only 'and' in a sentence is capable of combining the subject and making it plural.

Hope this helps !

Kyle, please correct me in case there's any disconnect.

thevenus · Answer

@Mohan

Pay attention to the following;

Jack   along with  his friends  is  going to the camp.
 Teachers   along with  the principal  are  going to the camp.

I like Chinese food  as well as  South-Indian meals .

together,altogether,together with are common in use with subtle usage differences.

Rozy and shena are going  together. 
The new machine can wash vegetables and chop them  altogether.
 Jenet is not willing to go to the movie  together with  any of her colleague.

Hope this helps !

mandyrhtdm · Answer

An easier way to understand is to see what the focus of the sentence is.
Suppose you have two main subjects say The prime minister and his secretary and they both went for a meeting.
Would you say " The Prime minister and his undersecretary went for the meeting ?
or The prime minister along with his undersecretary went for the meeting.
Obv the Second one because the priminister is the focus of the sentence it. and that is the reason we use Together with, along with because we want he focus to be on one of the subjects. The use of and accords equal importance to both of the subjects where as the use of together with and along with tells us that the first one is the main subject we are talking about. and hence singular.

minhtran1197 · Answer

Hello,

The explanation of option (B) of question 201 of GMAT Official Advanced Questions, reads as follows:

"... The first boldfaced portion is not a conclusion; it is merely an assertion that is not supported by any claims presented in the argument. This portion, along with the statement immediately following it,  ARE  offered in support of the second boldfaced portion..."

I understand that this is an explanation for a CR question, however it's inconsistent with the rule used in SC. Could some one please have a look at this? Thank you.

ellenckh · Answer

sorry this is so funny hahaha

The words 'together with', 'along with', 'as well as' and

Prep Toolkit

Top 5 GMAT Debrief Videos

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards