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. The verb should appear in the singular.
Consider these incorrect sentences:
Senator Jones along with his wife want to purchase the beach house. The CEO not to mention the 25 board members have decided to scrap the project.
The subjects of those sentences—“Senator Jones” and “the CEO”—are singular and require the singular verbs wants and has decided.
Of course, the writer might have written the following correct sentences:
Senator Jones and his wife want to purchase the beach house. The CEO and the 25 board members have decided to scrap the project.
You’ll find a complete discussion of this problem in the Common Grammatical Mistakes section of Grammar.com. Click here for the beginning of that discussion.
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