This is from Harper’s English Grammar by John B. Opdycke, p.203.
Quote:
Singular nouns and pronouns connected by and in a compound subject require a plural predicate, for the predicate must agree with them jointly; thus, Rain and snow have fallen heavily today. This rule does not hold in firm names that themselves denote a single organization as in Johnson and Johnson has placed a new paste on the market and Rogers and Peet has opened a new branch. And it does not hold in case nouns are so closely connected as to be regarded as one, as in My bread and board is paid for and My bread and butter tastes good and Wind and storm has wrought havoc, though there is much good usage to justify plural predication with these and similar subjects.
In the above quotation the author points out that some compound subjects can be treated as a unit, “as one”, and take a singular verb form. “Wind and storm”, for example, are so closely related that they can take the verb “has”. Though at the end he seems to be saying that many people would apply a plural verb form no matter what, and that wouldn’t necessarily be wrong.
I myself pretty much use Opdycke’s reasoning. In Andrew’s sentence, however, I felt he was making the actions very distinct by using the word “to” in front of both “sigh” and “cry” and by further describing the actions with anguish and ache respectively. He makes the actions sound distinct and separate from each other even though they are closely related and can be done at one and the same time. For that reason, I suggested that he use “consume”, not “consumes”.
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