And or Or; That is the question.

Seiichi MYOGA · Post by **Seiichi MYOGA** » Sun May 09, 2004 4:15 am

Do you accept both "and" and "or" or either of them?

(1) You must achieve a score of 550 or [more/greater] on the TOEFL.
(2) You must achieve a score of 550 or [higher/better] on the TOEFL.
(3) You must achieve a score of 550 or [above/upwards/over/beyond] on the TOEFL.

(4) You must achieve a score of 550 and [more/greater] on the TOEFL.
(5) You must achieve a score of 550 and [higher/better] on the TOEFL.
(6) You must achieve a score of 550 and [above/upwards/over/beyond] on the TOEFL.

In my humble observation,

"and" doesn't seem to co-occur with "greater," "higher," "better," "above" and "beyond." "Upwards," on the other hand, seems to be hostile to "or." "Over" might be nice to both.

Do you think as for points, either "or above" or "or higher" is the norm?

Thank you in advance
Seiichi MYOGA

P.S.
Do you accept both "on the TOEFL" and "in the TOEFL"?

dduck · Post by **dduck** » Mon May 10, 2004 11:15 am

I'd just like to mention that using 'or' in the sentence implies that the exam is taken at least once, whereas 'and' implies twice.

Iain

lolwhites · Post by **lolwhites** » Mon May 10, 2004 8:08 pm

...A score of 550 and higher/greater is logically/physically impossible. You can score less than 550, exactly 550 or more than 550, but it's not possible to score 550 and at the same time score more than 550. You can, however, score 550 or more.

Andrew Patterson · Post by **Andrew Patterson** » Mon May 10, 2004 9:14 pm

I'm with dduck and lolwhites on this one,

Sometimes students and teachers look for a grammatical reason for everything, but often (and this is a prime example) the question that you should ask is, "Does it make sense?" No, then put it in a way that does.