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Correct Answer: is going to the mall
in the sentence provided, the correct verb form to use hinges on understanding subject-verb agreement and how certain phrases affect it. the sentence in question is:
"the girl, together with her sisters and mother, are going to the mall."
here, the subject of the sentence is "the girl." the phrase "together with her sisters and mother" is a prepositional phrase that provides additional information about the girl but does not change the grammatical subject of the sentence. the subject remains singular - "the girl."
subject-verb agreement rules stipulate that a singular subject must be paired with a singular verb. in this sentence, the verb "are" is plural, which does not agree with the singular subject "the girl." therefore, "are" should be corrected to "is," the singular form of the verb, to match the singular subject.
the corrected sentence should read:
"the girl, together with her sisters and mother, is going to the mall."
the phrase "together with her sisters and mother" is an example of a non-essential clause that does not affect the number (singular or plural) of the subject. even if it adds more people into the context, it does not convert the subject from singular to plural. this is a common point of confusion in subject-verb agreement, especially when phrases like "along with," "together with," "as well as," etc., are used. these phrases do not make the subject plural.
to check if the verb agrees with the subject, one can temporarily remove the non-essential clause and examine if the sentence still makes grammatical sense. removing "together with her sisters and mother" from the original sentence leaves us with:
"the girl is going to the mall."
this version clearly shows that "is" is the correct form of the verb to use with the singular subject "the girl." thus, the correct choice is "is going to the mall," which corresponds to option c in the provided choices.
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