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Usenet Posted 22 years ago
Usage

Compound predicate word order

I have been lead to believe that "Open and save the document" is bad and that "Open the document and save it" is good. Someone recently challenged this, but I have failed to remember the rationale or to find a reference that discusses this. I haven't been able to find anything on this topic in the AUE FAQ, either. Comments?
Thanks,
meeroh

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Top answer

[nq:1]I have been lead to believe that "Open and save the document" is bad and that "Open the document and ... reference that discusses this. I haven't been able to find anything on this topic in the AUE FAQ, either.

  • [nq:1]I have been lead to believe that "Open and save the document" is bad and that "Open the document and ...
  • reference that discusses this.
  • I haven't been able to find anything on this topic in the AUE FAQ, either.
  • [/nq] There's nothing at all wrong with either.
  • Somebody may have decided to believe that 'Open and save' placed together suggest that the two actions are to be performed simultaneously; but that would be a silly interpretation.
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2 Answers
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[nq:1]I have been lead to believe that "Open and save the document" is bad and that "Open the document and ... reference that discusses this. I haven't been able to find anything on this topic in the AUE FAQ, either. Comments?[/nq]
There's nothing at all wrong with either. Somebody may have decided to believe that 'Open and save' placed together suggest that the two actions are to be performed
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[nq:1]I have been lead to believe that "Open and save the document" is bad and that "Open the document and ... reference that discusses this. I haven't been able to find anything on this topic in the AUE FAQ, either. Comments?[/nq]
Is your question about grammar, or about
style? Both are grammatical sentences.
Which one is more suitable as an instruction
depends upon the audience a

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