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The rest of the midfoot and hindfoot are nontender and have good range of motion.

Mister Micawber · Accepted Answer

The rest of the midfoot and hindfoot are not tender and have a good range of motion.

Tipsee1 · Answer

Thank you so much Mr. Micawber. Nontender is medical jargon and I have to use it verbatim. I was more worried about agreement of subject and verb wondering whether rest carried singular verbs.

Mister Micawber · Answer

Ah, I was distracted by the odd word. That is a bit of a problem. 'Rest' can take singular or plural verbs, depending on whether it represents a partial number (the rest of the guests are gone) or a part of a whole (the rest of the pie is gone). You seem to have a sort of mix of the two. When I read it, I was not thinking of the single foot, but the two (actually 3-- there is also a forefoot, I presume) segments, but I think that notional and proximal concord both come into play, so that a case could be made for each form of the verb.

Still it remains unclear: which part of the foot is tender? All of the forefoot and some of the mid- and hindfoot? Or is it only the forefoot that is tender, leaving the mid- and hindfoot nontender? I think a rephrasing is called for in any case to clarify this matter.

Tipsee1 · Answer

I went over the passage (and dictation) once again. I think the dictator means the forefoot is tender- the mid- and hindfoot are okay. ( We are supposed to use minimal punctuation.) Thank you for your time.

" On physical examination, his hard sole sandal is removed. He is alert, oriented and in no acute distress with a pleasant mood and affect. Height is 5 feet 10-1/2 inches and weight is 195 pounds. His standing alignment reveals him to stand with his weight on the lateral aspect of his foot elevating his medial column. He has swelling and ecchymosis medially over the 1st MTP joint as well as over the second. He has some mild diminished sensation over the tip of the great toe with tenderness laterally over the proximal phalanx as well as plantarly over the medial sesamoid. The toe is stiff and has brisk capillary refill. The rest of the midfoot and hindfoot are nontender and have good range of motion. He has palpable pulses and good strength."

Mister Micawber · Answer

Gee, your passage has a couple of mistakes in it, too.

If it is as you say, then I think you should recast it for clarity: The rest of his foot (the mid- and hindfoot) is nontender and has a good range of motion.

Tipsee1 · Answer

Good!  That is what I wanted.  Regarding mistakes, I am typing the doctor's dictation verbatim.  They make a lot of errors in sentence construction as well as grammar;  I cannot change all of that, cos they are medical professionals and not English language experts, but I try to correct glaring errors - my punctuation has also gone for a toss typing this kind of thing.... according to them we are not writing a novel and not to go overboard with the punctuation!  <img class='emoticon' style='Width:19px;Height:19px;' data-delaysrc='https://uat-englishforward-forums-backend.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/Emoticons/4.gif' src='https://uat-englishforward-forums-backend.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/Emoticons/4.gif' alt='Emotion: stick out tongue'/> (Rather they hate too much punctuation!)   I think I will change that above-mentioned sentence!  Thank you.

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