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Snappy Posted 16 years ago
Grammar

"Switch/Switches of the machines"

There are three identical machines. Each machine has a power switch. If I want to say that the power switch of each machine must be turned on, which one of the following sentences is better?
1. Turn on the power switch of the machines.
2. Turn on the power switches of the machines.
  

Top answer

Hi, There are three identical machines. Each machine has a power switch. If I want to say that the power switch of each machine must be turned on, which one of the following sentences is better?

  • Hi, There are three identical machines.
  • Each machine has a power switch.
  • If I want to say that the power switch of each machine must be turned on, which one of the following sentences is better?
  • 1.
  • Turn on the power switch of the machines.
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3 Answers
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Hi,

There are three identical machines. Each machine has a power switch. If I want to say that the power switch of each machine must be turned on, which one of the following sentences is better?
1. Turn on the power switch of the machines.
2. Turn on the power switches of the machines.

Of these two choices, I 'd choose #2.

But I prefer Turn on the power (swit
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This sounds like an instruction of an equipment procedure.
As an engineer, I would say technically, we don't turn on the "power switch". We turn on the machine by either "pressing" or "flipping" the power switch.

When machiens are in a power-off state and you want to power them up, you would logically power each one up individually, not all at the same time to prevent power surge.
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Thank you Clive and Dimsumexpress.

Distributive singular and distributive plural are difficult to me.

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