Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[Tetsu]

Which is correct?

Transparent water and yellow water was/were mixed.

There is/are optical information and electronic infaomation.

Thanks a lot for the help.
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Tetsu

[juliesince78]

were mixed
and
there is

[Tetsu]

Thanks for your quick relply!

But how do you distinguish is/are ore was/were?

I think if you use were in the first sentence then you have to use are in the second sentence and if you use was in the first sentence then you have to use is in the secod sentence because both sentences tell about two uncountable nouns.

note.
Sorry. "infaomation" in the second sentence is a mistake. It should be "information."
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Tetsu

[juliesince78]

Transparent water and yellow water was/were mixed.

There is/are optical information and electronic infaomation.

well I don't have a great explanation but 'transparent water' and 'yellow water' can be replaced with 'they' so it would be 'they were mixed' or 'the waters were mixed.' i guess because water can be made plural but information cant. 'there is optical information' and 'there is electric information' but you cannot say 'there are information' even if you have two types.

[Tetsu]

Thanks for your quick reply again!

Can you teach me one more? Which is correct?

There is/are transparent water and yellow water.
Optical information and electronic information was/were broken.
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Tetsu

[brigitte]

there is/are ....
in such sentences, is/are depends on the first object after it

For example,
There is a yellow pen and two red pens.
There are two red pens and one yellow pen.

[Tetsu]

Thanks for your kind reply!

May I ask a little more?

Is the following S-1 sentence usually used even in formal writing?
S-1:There is a yellow pen and two red pens.

which is correct, was or were, in the following S-2 sentence?
S-2:Optical information and electronic information was/were broken.
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Tetsu