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English 1b3 Posted 13 years ago
Grammar

Use of the word 'worsen'

Left untreated, vision loss will progressively worsen, potentially leading to total blindness.

Do you accept the use of 'worsen' here? Microsoft Word underlines it in blue (I don't know what the blue underline is meant to indicate) and suggests I replace it with worse - obviously incorrect.

Thanks
  

Top answer

Left untreated, vision loss will progressively worsen, potentially leading to total blindness. Do you accept the use of 'worsen' here? yes The only other problem with the sentence is that one doesn't treat vision; one treats a disease or condition.

— Canadian45

  • Left untreated, vision loss will progressively worsen, potentially leading to total blindness.
  • Do you accept the use of 'worsen' here?
  • yes The only other problem with the sentence is that one doesn't treat vision; one treats a disease or condition.
  • But if there is mention of a disease or condition just before that sentence, there is no problem.
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4 Answers
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Left untreated, vision loss will progressively worsen, potentially leading to total blindness. Do you accept the use of 'worsen' here? yes
The only other problem with the sentence is that one doesn't treat vision; one treats a disease or condition. But if there is mention of a disease or condition jus
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canadian45The only other problem with the sentence is that one doesn't treat vision; one treats a disease or condition.
"Vision loss" is a condition.
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enoon"Vision loss" is a condition.
Yes, you can say that. But "vison loss" itself cannot be treated, except maybe with glasses. And such 'treatment' will not stop worsening of whatever underlying disease is causing the vision loss.
I probably should have just mentioned "disease", not "condition". Progressive worsening is much more indicative of a disease r
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Word underlines things in blue to suggest there MAY be an error. It probably flagged 'worsen' in case you had misspelled 'worse' or something, since the error is likely more common than a legitimate use of the word worsen.
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