General Forum
Start a New Topic 
Author
Comment
Noun plurality with conjunctions

I was hoping for advice on singular vs. plural noun usage when using 'or' with a list of elements/nouns.

Food processed by the yellow, blue, or red mixers is then sent along the conveyor belt.
(or)
Food processed by the yellow, blue, or red mixer is then sent along the conveyor belt.

While the form to be used is obvious if you know whether or not there are multiple mixers of the same color, the issue becomes more complicated if we don't know how many types of each mixer we have, or if we have different amounts of each mixer(1 yellow, 2 blue, and 3 red, etc.)

Re: Noun plurality with conjunctions

You don't really have many tidy options if you want to crack this in one sentence.

Food processed by the yellow mixer, the two blue mixers, or the three red mixers is then sent along the conveyor belt.

Food processed by the yellow mixer, one of two blue mixers, or one of the three red mixers is then sent along the conveyor belt.


That does the trick. I'm not sure it's unusable as a piece of English. Anyone who cares about its clumsiness will also appreciate your predicament. Go for repetition of "mixer(s)" if I were you.

If YOU don't know how many mixers there are, you're stuck with:

Food processed by a yellow mixer, a blue mixer, or a red mixer is then sent along the conveyor belt.