MrRead,togetherwithhissons,supperat7o"clockyesterday.A.waseatingB.wereeating为什么不用复数啊,有别的语法麻烦也解释一下

Question

Mr Read,together with his sons,___supper at 7 o"clockyesterday.
A.was eating B.were eating 为什么不用复数啊,有别的语法麻烦也解释一下

Answer 1

首先你需要知道,主语只能由名词、代词或者相当于名词的词（比如动名词）来充当,而不能是其他的形容词、副词、介词等等,更不能直接用动词充当主语.
together with his sons是一个介词短语,不能算是主语的成分,只能作状语,类似的还有with、like（介词,“像” ）、along with等等.
而谓语的 “单复数” 形式是一般由主语决定的,除非是某些特定的语法（这里只是普通的句型,就不用考虑那么多了）,根据前面的分析,因为Mr Read只是 “一” 个人,是单数,所以谓语用单数was.
但是and不同,and不是介词,而是连词,它所连接的成分是同等的,两者会充当相同的成分,所以下面的句子：
Mr Read and with his sons were eating supper at 7 o'clock yesterday.
应该用复数were.