verb agreement - Singular vs. Plural with Multiple Gerunds as Subject (IE: [Gerund] and [Gerund] are/is [something].)


I'm trying to find out whether I should use a singular or plural verb when there are multiple gerunds as the subject of the sentence.


For example:



Running the correct course and keeping a steady pace are/is necessary in order to win.



With either one of these by itself, "is" would be correct:



Running the correct course is necessary in order to win.


Keeping a steady pace is necessary in order to win.



With both gerunds combined, I can't seem to figure out whether the verb should stay singular since each phrase is singular, or if it should become plural since there are two connected by "and".


If we just treat the gerunds as regular nouns, then obviously it would become "are", but I'm not sure if gerunds have the exact same rules as regular nouns.


I know that if the sentence was:



Running the correct course and keeping a steady pace are both necessary.



That "are" would be correct, but without the "both" it sounds incorrect to me.


Does anyone know the official rule here?



Answer



My opinion: plural except in a special case (see below). The only explicit statements I've found to corroborate my opinion are on Answers.com regarding subject/verb agreement and a chat board for college students, neither of which strikes me as particularly authoritative. Nothing I can find indicates that anything other than a plural is appropriate when the subject of the sentence is two of anything conjoined by "and," including two gerunds.


Special case: gerunds that go together to form a unit of activity: drinking and driving, or texting and driving, etc. In those cases, when the point is the combined act, then a singular is nearly always used. Now that I think about it, the singular or plural helps differentiate: "walking and chewing gum is a skill mastered by most people" versus "walking and chewing gum are physically active tasks, thinking is not, but all three burn calories."


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