Sunday, April 2, 2017

grammar - Inferred verb? Is it ok to drop the second appearance of the same verb in a sentence?

I work in a scientific field and when my reports are reviewed I commonly have them kicked back asking to add a second "were" before "compared" to this kind of sentence:



The items were entered into the database and the results compared...



The items were entered into the database and the results were compared...



Is the second "were" necessary? I've been writing like this for a while and never thought twice about it, but when asked I can't explain why this works. I believe the issue is similar to this post: How to write past perfect forms of two verbs in one sentence



If so, can someone please explain in a little more detail? Thanks in advance!

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