Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[mi]

Hi.
I would like to know if the sentence like below should be written in singular or plural.

"The button(or 'buttons'?) of A and B is on the panel.", which means there are 2 buttons on the panel.

Thanks in advance.

mi

[lotus]

Hi Mi,

You can say:

The buttons A and B are on the panel.
or
Buttons A and B are on the panel.


--lotus
_________________
War does not make one great --Yoda

[mi]

Hi Lotus.
Thanks for your reply.
I understand your answer but I want to use 'of' in that sentence for some reason so please answer the question again?

mi

[lotus]

Hi Mi,

We do not us "of" here because A and B are parenthetical to and qualifiers of "buttons." They are functionally an appositive.

This is quite normal for technical writing. For example:
IC's U3 and U4 are located in D5 (in the schematic).

You'll even hear it in everyday speech:
Lines 4 and 5 are busy.
The sisters Mary and Betty were very close.


--lotus
_________________
War does not make one great --Yoda

[mi]

Hello.

I posted the below question before and I think I should have written precisely at that time.
'A' and 'B' are for example some machine's name so now the sentence should be;
"The button(or buttons) of machine A and machine B is on the panel."

I just want to know if I take singular or plural for the word 'button' in this case.
Thanks for your help.

mi

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I would like to know if the sentence like below should be written in singular or plural.

"The button(or 'buttons'?) of A and B is on the panel.", which means there are 2 buttons on the panel.

Thanks in advance.

[lotus]

Hi Mi,

Try these:

The (set of) buttons on machine A and machine B are (located) on their panels.

The (set of) buttons on machines A and B are (located) on their respective panels.

"On" is better than "of" because the buttons reside "on" the machines.
The possesive indicator "their" is better than "the."
We sometimes use "respective" when things are listed consecutively.
Words in parenthesis are optional.


--lotus
_________________
War does not make one great --Yoda