misunderstanding of sentences structure

Question

I found some questions from the following sentence.

1. No conduit shall be of less than 20mm diameter. (Why use "of" ?)

No conduit shall be less than 20mm diameter. (Is it correct?)

2. At bolt connections, care must be taken to avoid runs of paint through holes.

( Is runs as a noun?)

3. Some equipments are required to be ordered within this week.

(Why use passive voice"to be ordered" after the "are required "?)

Some equipments are required to order within this week. (Is active voice "to order" correct?)

4. Referring to liaison with you that i would like to ........ (Is it correct?)

Help me to solve! Thanks

Davkett · Accepted Answer

1. No conduit shall be of less than 20mm diameter. (Why use "of" ?)

No conduit shall be less than 20mm diameter. (Is it correct?) Both seem possible, though the first is better. ('No conduit shall be [have a measurement] of less than 20mm in diameter')

2. At bolt connections, care must be taken to avoid runs of paint through holes.

( Is runs as a noun?) Yes. A 'run' of paint is a dripline.

3. Some equipments are required to be ordered within this week.

(Why use passive voice"to be ordered" after the "are required "?)

Some equipments are required to order within this week. (Is active voice "to order" correct?) Incorrect. Equipment cannot order itself.

4. Referring to liaison with you that i would like to ........ (Is it correct?) More context needed.

Ben9108 · Answer

Thanks Davkett

1. No conduit shall be had a measurement of less than 20mm in diameter.

Active change to passive, is it correct?

2. Referring to liaison with you that the following catalogues will be sent to client for their approval.

Is it correct?

Davkett · Answer

No conduit shall have a measurement of less than 20mm in diameter. This was my answer to your original question about the meaning of the word 'of'. Do you need to make an active/passive switch now?

Referring to liaison with you that the following catalogues will be sent to client for their approval. This is not a complete sentence. What do you want to do with it?

Paco2004 · Answer

Ben9108I found some questions from the following sentence.
1. No conduit shall be of less than 20mm diameter. (Why use "of" ?)
No conduit shall be less than 20mm diameter. (Is it correct?)

Hello Ben

I know Davkett already gave a nice answer to your question. But I'd like to put my two cents worth to the question, because I am an expert in hydraulics and water supply in my real life.

The mist common expression we use is <1> "No conduit shall be less than 20 mm in diameter". This sort of construct is very common not only in the field of science and technology but also in daily conversation when talking about a person's or a thing's numerical quality.
(EX-1) She is now seven years in age but already 50 kg in weight.
(EX-2) The room is 20 feet in height and 10 feet in width.
However I still didn't get how to parse these sentences. I know, in (EX-1) for example, "in age" should be "in respect of age", but how about "seven years"? Is it an adjectival phrase or nominal phrase?

"No conduit shall be of no less than 20 mm diameter" is an expression rather of rare use. This "of X" is an adjectival phrase to mean "characterized by X". So the sentence is to be "No conduit shall be characterized by no less than 20 mm diameter." This means "no less than 20 mm" modifies "diameter". But I wonder if there were such an attributive use of "no less than 20 mm". I think in this case we might as well say <2>"No conduit shall be of less than 20 mm in diameter". Although this sentence looks to be redundant compared with <1>, I feel <2> might be the more grammatical precedent of the grammatically ambiguous <1>.

paco

misunderstanding of sentences structure

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