As Well As | Video Overview

Transcript

0:00 “As well as” is a common phrase that means “in addition to.” It functions as either a preposition or a conjunction and is used to join two parts of a sentence together. I’m Eva from QuillBot. Let’s look at the phrase “as well as” and how to use it correctly.

0:17 Although “as well as” can sometimes be used instead of “and,” the two aren’t completely interchangeable. There are some occasions where it’s not possible to replace “and” with “as well as.”

0:30 In a list, you can’t use “as well as” before the last item. You must use “and.” For example, you could say, “Nikon, Canon, Sony, and Leica are well-known camera brands,” but you couldn’t say, “Nikon, Canon, Sony, as well as Leica.”

0:48 When using “both” and “and” to talk about two things, you can’t substitute “as well as.” You can say, for example, “I like both chocolate and vanilla,” but not “I like both chocolate as well as vanilla.”

1:02 In many other situations, you are free to use either, as long as you remember that “as well as” adds emphasis to the part of the sentence that precedes it and removes emphasis from the part that follows. However, “and” connects two parts of equal value and weight.

1:18 “As well as” needs to be set off by commas, em dashes, or parentheses. In the sentence “Coffee, as well as tea, has caffeine,” for example, you would put a comma after “coffee” and after “tea.”

1:29 Next, when using “as well as,” what comes after it is not part of the subject. That means you should use a singular form of the verb. Take the sentence “Sausage, as well as bacon, is included in the meal.” You’d use “is,” referring to just “sausage,” because “bacon” is not part of the subject.

1:47 You can also use “as well as” to connect verbs. If there’s a comma before “as well as,” put the second verb in the “-ing” form. You could say, for example, “Anna studies, as well as waiting tables,” but you couldn’t say “Anna studies, as well as waits tables.”