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Every Bentley, Lamborghini, and Porsche (is/are) owned by Volkswagen

I had some difficulties with this because I thought that the answer would have to be "are" because a) There are different objects that are being listed out

b)"every" signifies multiple things so I thought that it would entail that I ought to choose "are"

But the answer key dictates that the answer is "is" and I don't understand why that is.

I was wondering if it has to do anything with the word "every"?

John Rawls
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    Every, as well as each, is used to single out the subjects and always takes a singular verb. See: http://uwf.edu/writinglabapp/minilessons/mini-lesson_15x.htm, and http://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/grammar/british-grammar/every – vpn Jul 08 '17 at 16:21
  • Incidentally, that sentence means that Volkswagen owns every individual car of those three brands. The intended meaning might be different, for example that Volkswagen owns the three named companies or trademarks. – Andreas Blass Jul 09 '17 at 02:49

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Every refers to each concrete example of the listed items as individuals -- that is, every Bentley is [X] is sort of a shorthand way of saying your Bentley, my Bentley is [X], my other Bentley is [X], and my wife's Bentley is [X]. So it is referring to a bunch of singular items discretely. As such, the collection takes a singular verb -- is in your example:

Every Bentley, Lamborghini, and Porsche is owned by Volkswagen.

This also applies to words such as each and either. See this link for more info.

Updated to fix a real brain fart on my part.

Roger Sinasohn
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