Can

Question

Hi!In the following sentence, has an author omitted "can" from the place indicated as &lt;  &gt; below?In Antarctica, winds can blow at better than 200 mph, and temperatures &lt;  &gt; drop as low as minus 128.6.Your advice will be appreciated.

Davkett · Accepted Answer

MaymhightIn the following sentence, has an author omitted "can" from the place indicated as < > below?

Yes. It's acceptable. (Especially if you're writing up there in the cold without any gloves.)

Maymhight · Answer

Davkett
Maymhight
In the following sentence, has an author omitted "can" from the place indicated as < > below?

Yes. It's acceptable. (Especially if you're writing up there in the cold without any gloves.)

Thank you for your reply. I like your additional comment: (Especially if you're writing up there in the cold without any gloves.), which has made me smile.

This sentence was written by a professional writer, who I believe wrote in a "cozy" room after a trip to Antarctica.

Is it possible to guess if the expert writer omitted "can" intentionally here or if he intended to write as it is written: "temperatures drop."

I am under the impression that without "can", something "always" happens, while with can " something "sometimes" happens."

Can we say "temperatures drop" in the same sense that "temperatures can drop" in the context in question?

Paco2004 · Answer

"NASA SP-7084 Grammar, Punctuation, and Capitalization A Handbook for Technical Writers and Editors" (Mary K. McCaskill Langley Research Center Hampton, Virginia) says "The omission of auxiliary verbs is grammatical unless the subjects change number (Rowland 1962)".

In your sentence, "winds" and "temperatures" are both plural, so the omission of "can" is allowed.

paco

Maymhight · Answer

Thanks for your comment.

The handbook seems to be very handy.

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