"Make" versus "Makes" in sentence?

Question

Tax Firm's excellence and location, combined with my own skills and experience, make the Firm an ideal place to continue my career back home in Connecticut.

or

Tax Firm's excellence and location, combined with my own skills and experience, makes the Firm an ideal place to continue my career back home in Connecticut.

Well. Just how many things do you think you need to keep combining until they become more than one thing. — RegDwigнt, Aug 12 '20 at 13:34
Does this answer your question? "This paper, combined with some glue" — singular or plural? Or singular or plural verb-form where subject includes a parenthetical element? — Edwin Ashworth, Aug 12 '20 at 14:29
"Expressions such as coupled with, as well as, along with, together with, not to mention, and others do not act as coordinating conjunctions. Therefore, when you use these expressions to join one singular subject of a sentence with another noun or pronoun, you do not form a plural subject." [Grammar.com]. But then there is the additional fact that 'Tax Firm's excellence and location' contains two coordinated referents.... — Edwin Ashworth, Aug 12 '20 at 14:33
These are so disparate that I wouldn't put them in a basic coordinate structure, never mind wonder whether they were so unitary that they should trigger singular agreement. — Edwin Ashworth, Aug 12 '20 at 14:34
Does this answer your question? "This paper, combined with some glue" — singular or plural? — KillingTime, Aug 13 '20 at 05:42

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Aug 12 '20 at 14:16

0

The verb-subject agreement here is clear: You have plural subjects (excellence, location, plus skills and experience), so: (these things) "make the firm an ideal place..."

I like "Woe is I: The Grammarphobe's Guide to Better English in Plain English" by Patricia T. O'Conner for clear, easy to digest guidance on these types of questions.

answered Aug 12 '20 at 14:16

user8356

2,982

Does she mention the complication when the second [...] referent is in a parenthetical? – Edwin Ashworth Aug 12 '20 at 14:30
I believe so, there are four or five different types of constructions that she discusses, but I'll have to check that particular one. – user8356 Aug 12 '20 at 14:36
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You're analysing as [A + B + C] here instead of [A + B] {& C}. (You still arrive at the correct 'answer', assuming the sentence is left as it is and not improved for style.) – Edwin Ashworth Aug 12 '20 at 14:38
Actually, that [A+B] {&C} is how I saw it. These subject-verb agreement questions can be difficult for non-linguists (myself included) to analyze. As you mention above, multiple subjects can be incorrectly assumed to be a plural subject. Example: "John, along with many other employees, is protesting the new office policy." Some might assume there's a plural subject there (employees), but the sentence, as mentioned, requires the singular verb "is." – user8356 Aug 12 '20 at 22:19

"Make" versus "Makes" in sentence?

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