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Love_bug Posted 12 years ago
Grammar

Should I use singular or plural here?

bit confuse here, please help :

"If you are drinking cola or pepsi, you will find (its / their) toxicity in (it / them)."
  

Top answer

Neither choice makes proper sense (except possibly in a strained and unlikely interpretation where "its"/"them" refers to something else mentioned earlier). Purely in terms of English, "If you are drinking Cola or Pepsi, you will find that it is toxic" makes sense, but I wonder whether this is really what you want to say. Do you mean that the drink has been poisoned?

  • Neither choice makes proper sense (except possibly in a strained and unlikely interpretation where "its"/"them" refers to something else mentioned earlier).
  • Purely in terms of English, "If you are drinking Cola or Pepsi, you will find that it is toxic" makes sense, but I wonder whether this is really what you want to say.
  • Do you mean that the drink has been poisoned?
  • It may be that "toxic(ity)" is the wrong word altogether.
  • I think more background context is needed.
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9 Answers
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Neither choice makes proper sense (except possibly in a strained and unlikely interpretation where "its"/"them" refers to something else mentioned earlier). Purely in terms of English, "If you are drinking Cola or Pepsi, you will find that it is toxic" makes sense, but I wonder whether this is really what you want to say. Do you mean that the drink has been poisoned? It may be that "toxic(ity)" is
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hi thanks for your reply. I come to this situation many times and I get confused often.

"If you are using iphone, LG or samsung, they all use gorilla glass" - sounds correct
"earth, moon or sun have soil" - sounds correct or should i use has, just because i am talking individual planet?

one more :
"If you are using samsung or any phone, you will find their own headphone j
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love_bughi thanks for your reply. I come to this situation many times and I get confused often."If you are using iphone, LG or samsung, they all use gorilla glass" - sounds correct"earth, moon or sun have soil" - sounds correct or should i use has, just because i am talking individual planet?one more :"If you are using samsung or any phone, you will find their own headpho
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GPYIf you are using a Samsung or any other phone, you will find it has a headphone jack that will do the task
... or "do the job" would be more usual.
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thanks for your valuable time replaying to my stupid questions...

so the first example, what could I use instead of "If", i usually write "If this, then that.."

and on the last example, am I not referring to plural form? if you are using "it", then shouldn't it be "does the task?", *** it is sounding more complicated and too many questions in my mind
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ok there's "will" which makes sense, "will does" sounds odd.
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love_bugso the first example, what could I use instead of "If", i usually write "If this, then that.."
"If A, (then) B" is fine in itself. Basically, it means that, in the case that A happens, B also happens. Literally, your sentence says that "they all use Gorilla Glass" happens if "you are using an iPhone, LG or Samsung". Strictly speaking this is illog
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Thanks GPY, you are the best.

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