Being rich and famous certainly has/have some advantages.
Being rich and being famous certainly has/have some advantages.
Being enormous and being made of rare materials is/are why this throne is so expensive.
Which is the right form of verb to use in each of these sentences and why?
Best Answer
One Non-Finite Clause as a Subject? Singular Verb
To study this question more closely, I went to the News on the Web (NOW) Corpus, ran a search for "Being rich and famous" (139 results). Out of the results, when the non-finite clause was a subject, every verb was singular. Here are some examples:
In each case, the non-finite clause (ones headed by an infinitive or participial form; see Wikipedia) takes a singular verb, even if the clause has multiple or plural elements within (see Celce-Murcia, Larsen-Freeman, Williams, The Grammar Book, p. 66).
Two Non-Finite Clauses as a Subject? Usually a Plural Verb
Take this example:
In this case, two nonfinite clauses connected by and are treated as plural rather than singular. That would govern both your second and third examples.
This construction is unusual though; I wouldn't be surprised to see a native speaker say something like
because they think of it in a singular mode or pertaining to only one entity (Bob), a form of notional agreement or determining agreement by meaning. (For more exploration of those possibilities, the question "Singular vs. Plural with Multiple Gerunds as Subject (IE: [Gerund] and [Gerund] are/is [something].)" explores some possibilities).