Wednesday, May 22, 2013

word choice - Mixing adjective and noun enumerations



I am having trouble writing a seemingly simple sentence. I am organising an event where three kinds of food will be served:




  • hot beverages

  • cold beverages

  • finger food




My trouble deals with putting these three items together in one sentence. I have tried several ways, but all of them seem wrong:





  • Hot and cold beverages and finger food will be served at every meeting (two and)

  • Hot, cold beverages and finger food [...] (it looks like hot is a complete item)

  • Hot beverages, cold beverages and finger food [...] (redundant beverages)

  • Hot beverages, cold drinks and finger food [...] (dirty trick; I don't like it)





Putting finger food in front does not help either. What would be the right way to write this sentence?


Answer



Duplicating and is to be avoided if it causes ambiguity or confusion. Even then, use of an "Oxford comma" can sometimes remove the problem.



If this isn't the case, it's perfectly fine to duplicate and:





Hot and cold beverages and finger food will be served at every meeting.



Finger food and hot and cold beverages will be served at every meeting.



Finger food, and hot and cold beverages, will be served at every meeting.



Hot and cold beverages, and finger food, will be served at every meeting.




Are all perfectly fine, in approximate order of which strikes my personal subjective opinions as the better.



No comments:

Post a Comment