Subspace supplement with a prescribed intersection ($W\cap W^{\prime }=U,W+W^{\prime }=V$)

For vector subspaces $U\subseteq W\subseteq V$ of a finite-dimensional vector space, such a $W^{\prime }$ always exists. Extend a basis of $U$ to one of $W$, then extend again to one of $V$. Let $W^{\prime }$ be spanned by the original basis of $U$ together with the vectors added in the second extension. Uniqueness of coordinates gives the displayed intersection and sum. Equivalently, choose a direct sum complement $C$ with $V=W\oplus C$ and put $W^{\prime }=U\oplus C$. Necessarily $\dim W^{\prime }=\dim V-\dim W+\dim U$. In $M_2(\mathbb{R})$, the skew-symmetric subspace $U$ inside the traceless subspace $W$ admits $W^{\prime }=\mathrm{span}\{I,\left(\begin{array}{cc}0& 1\\ -1& 0\end{array}\right)\}$.