Conjunction

Question

Art patrons are far less expert in distinguishing good paintings from poor ones, authentic art from fakes.

Just wondering ,Is this sentence not missing AND before authentic? Or is there any reason to omit AND here... this sentence is from ETS practice question....they say its correct... perhaps typo.....

Thank you

AlpheccaStars · Accepted Answer

pokhArt patrons are far less expert in distinguishing good paintings from poor ones, authentic art from fakes.

Just wondering ,Is this sentence not missing AND before authentic? Or is there any reason to omit AND here... this sentence is from ETS practice question....they say its correct... perhaps typo.....

Thank you

It is correct. The expression authentic art from fakes is appositive to good paintings from poor ones. That is, it renames or restates the same concept. Good paintings = authentic art, poor ones= fakes.

Here are some examples of appositives:

George, my youngest brother, is coming to visit.

I gave the ball the Mr. Smith, the head coach.

Canadian45 · Answer

pokhArt patrons are far less expert in distinguishing good paintings from poor ones, authentic art from fakes.

Just wondering, is this sentence not missing AND before authentic? Or is there any reason to omit AND here... this sentence is from ETS practice question....they say its correct... perhaps typo..... Thank you
I agree that there should be an 'and' before "authentic". Without 'and', the strong suggestion is that "good" is synonymous with "authentic" and "poor" is synonymous with "fake". But I don't think that's not necessarily so. And if the two words after the comma were snynonymous with the two words before the comma, what is the need for the words after the comma?

Chivalry · Answer

canadian45
pokhArt patrons are far less expert in distinguishing good paintings from poor ones, authentic art from fakes. Just wondering, is this sentence not missing AND before authentic? Or is there any reason to omit AND here... this sentence is from ETS practice question....they say its correct... perhaps typo..... Thank you
I agree that there should be an 'and' before "authentic". Without 'and', the strong suggestion is that "good" is synonymous with "authentic" and "poor" is synonymous with "fake". But I don't think that's not necessarily so. And if the two words after the comma were snynonymous with the two words before the comma, what is the need for the words after the comma?

Same here, I do notgree the two words are equivalent to the two adjectives before the comma.

But you know what? I think this sentence is not complete yet, it must go on with more things like

"and from distinct masterpiece to lousy ones.' at least. Generally speaking I don't think it's a complete sentence,

that's why it looks incorrect.

Canadian45 · Answer

1. The sentence in my first post should have been, 'But I don't think that's necessarily so. '

2. The sentence would be complete with the added 'and'.

CalifJim · Answer

pokhArt patrons are far less expert in distinguishing good paintings from poor ones, authentic art from fakes.

Just wondering ,Is this sentence not missing AND before authentic?

Yes and no. As a matter of style, obvious conjunctions are sometimes omitted, especially when there is a parallel structure to justify it, as you have here. I'll bet you could do some sort of random Googling and find 10 to 20 of these in less than an hour. The missing conjunction could be "and", as you suggest, but I think it might just as well be "or".

CJ

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