Learn English – Can every A or B plus singular form of verb be possible

conjunctionsverb-forms

“Every town and city has areas like this.” (source)

When I first came across this clause, I thought it might have wrong verb form of has instead of have. Now I can understand why there is has. But it gives me some other questions. Can a clause, ‘Every town or city has areas like this’, be made under any circumstance? If it’s possible, is the verb form, has, still right?

Best Answer

Your example:

”Every town and city has areas like this.”

would explicitly read:

Every town and every city has areas like this.

The subject – verb agreement is correct.

Now, let’s consider the general case in which you replaced the conjoining conjunction and with the disjunctive conjunction or.

The pattern would be:

“every A or B +verb”.

In this case a correct subject – verb agreement is given by the form of A and B, whether they are singular or plural. More can be read here

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