Q: What is the correct form of the verb in the sentence below?
The mayor together with his wife (greet/greets) the guests at the party.
Well, this doesn’t seem to be around research or research publishing (which is what we, along with our parent brand, Editage, are about), unless of course, the guests were researchers. :) But we are into editing (Editage) and providing resources for researchers (Editage Insights), so here goes…
Actually, here, the right word/phrase is not ‘together,’ but ‘along with.’ ‘Along with’ has a sense of accompaniment, whereas ‘together’ has a sense of being or doing something in tandem. In this sentence, the focus is on the mayor as the person of prominence, who is accompanied by his wife, rather than they going around welcoming people as a team or duo. Also, the punctuation, which is missing here (except for the period at the end), needs to reflect the focus on the mayor. Therefore, the really correct way of writing this sentence, with the right verb and punctuation, would be: The mayor, along with his wife, greets the guests at the party.
For more such terms of common confusion, especially in research writing, you may refer to the following resources:
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