[Grammar] 'A and B alike' as a subject

[simile]

When 'A and B alike' is a subject, do we regard it as a unit or two separate units?
Thanks a lot!

 

[MikeNewYork]

That depends on context. Do you have any?

 

[Tdol]

As a subject, I would generally use a plural verb.

 

[Raymott]

As far as I can work out, you can only use "alike" with two or more items, so it has to be plural. "Alike" doesn't unify the items.

 

[simile]

Then I say, "A and B alike are both good choices."
The use of both is proper, right?

 

[Roman55]

I am not a teacher.

"A and B alike are both good choices." sounds like overkill to me.

"Both" is good, it's "alike" that doesn't work.

I think you mean, "A and B are both good choices." or, " "A and B are equally good choices."

To use "alike" adverbially you would have to turn the sentence around to something clumsy like, "The [quality of being a good choice] applied to A and B alike."