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Anonymous Posted 17 years ago
Grammar

Using the same word twice in a row.

Hi there

I have a question regarding the use of the same word twice in a row in a sentence. The specific example I have in mind is, "Can we have a look at this this morning?". In this sentence, "this" is repeated and while it is ungainly in written form, it sounds very natural when spoken and I am not sure it is actually incorrect or not. Are there any rules or guidelines surrounding this?

Regards

Steve
  

Top answer

" I'm not aware of any such rules. I think your suggestion of giving it the ear test is a good one. As with any construction, if it sounds awkward, or is ambiguous, try to find another way, even when it's perfectly legal.

  • " I'm not aware of any such rules.
  • I think your suggestion of giving it the ear test is a good one.
  • As with any construction, if it sounds awkward, or is ambiguous, try to find another way, even when it's perfectly legal.
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6 Answers
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There are many cases where it's unavoidable, such as "had had," and "that that."

I'm not aware of any such rules. I think your suggestion of giving it the ear test is a good one. As with any construction, if it sounds awkward, or is ambiguous, try to find another way, even when it's perfectly legal.
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Hello. I'm not sure if this is the right place to put this, but I have a similar question. If I was to use the same word twice consecutively, using the first as an adjective and the second as the noun, would that need any sort of special punctuation, such as a comma?
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Hi,

Please give a sentence as an example.

Clive
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I'm trying to figure out what to do about this sentence-- I'm not sure what punctuation to use:

"She wanted to see justice done; done right, and done fast."

I believe that a semicolon is incorrect in it's placement here, but it also looks strange to me when I use two commas...
"She wanted to see justice done, done right, and done fast."

Is this the correct way to do
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Hi,

Just use the commas.

In a context like this, a semi-colon must be followed by wording that can function as an independent sentence. 'Done right, done fast' can't.

Clive
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Torontonians had golfed at at least thirty different properties.


Is using the at twice okay

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