Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[river1974]

Dear teachers:

(a) The law will change so that the employee can show that the patent or the invention or both has been of outstanding benefit.
(b) The law will change so that the employee can show that the patent or the invention or both have been of outstanding benefit.

Which one is correct? Thanks.

[lotus]

Hi river1974,

May I suggest the following sentence for clarity.

The law will change; so that employees are allowed to demonstrate that their inventions or patents are of benefit to the company.

Usually a patent has an invention associated with it. An invention may not have a patent. No need for "both."

When the structure of the sentence is A or B, the verb is plural - even if A and B are singular. Think of it this way - even though you might select just one, you actually have a choice from two.

Examples:
When a baby salivates or bites, it is teething. Salivating or biting are signs of teething.

Salivating and biting are singular:
Salivating is gross.
Biting is a bad habit.


--lotus

[lotus]

Hi river1974,

May I suggest the following sentence for clarity.

The law will change; so that employees are allowed to demonstrate that their inventions or patents are of benefit to the company.

Usually a patent has an invention associated with it. An invention may not have a patent. No need for "both."

When the structure of the sentence is A or B, the verb is plural - even if A and B are singular. Think of it this way - even though you might select just one, you actually have a choice from two.

Examples:
When a baby salivates or bites, it is teething. Salivating or biting are signs of teething.

Salivating and biting are singular:
Salivating is gross.
Biting is a bad habit.


--lotus

[river1974]

[/quote]When the structure of the sentence is A or B, the verb is plural - even if A and B are singular.

[river1974]

[/quote]When the structure of the sentence is A or B, the verb is plural - even if A and B are singular.[quote]
Thanks lotus. Your explanations are quite helpful to me. I always think that it's just person preference to choose the verb form, singular or plural, under such sentence structure.

[river1974]

When the structure of the sentence is A or B, the verb is plural - even if A and B are singular.

Thanks lotus. Your explanations are quite helpful to me. I always think that it's just person preference to choose the verb form, singular or plural, under such sentence structure.