Rising inventories, when unaccompanied correspondingly by increases in

In stripped down form

Rising inventories, when unaccompanied correspondingly by increases in sales, can lead to production cutbacks that would hamper economic growth.
Inventories lead to cutbacks that would hamper growth.
Inventories - plural, lead - plural. Rising is acting as an adjective to inventories

A)When unaccompanied correspondingly by increases in sales, can lead
- When used for time, if is preferable. Correspondingly is an adjective, should modify a noun
B)When not accompanied by corresponding increases in sales, possibly leads
- When used for time, if is preferable. leads is singular, inventories is plural
C)When they were unaccompanied by corresponding sales increases, can lead
- When used for time, if is preferable. Were is past tense, other verbs in sentence are in possibility/future. Sequence of actions does not mandate a past tense verb. Increase in sales is preferred
D)If not accompanied by correspondingly increased sales, possibly leads
- Leads is singular, inventories is plural
E) If not accompanied by corresponding increases in sales, can lead
- correct

Thanks

Rising inventories, when unaccompanied correspondingly by increases in sales, can lead to production cutbacks that would hamper economic growth.


A)When unaccompanied correspondingly by increases in sales, can lead
B)When not accompanied by corresponding increases in sales, possibly leads
C)When they were unaccompanied by corresponding sales increases, can lead
D)If not accompanied by correspondingly increased sales, possibly leads
E) If not accompanied by corresponding increases in sales, can lead

lat part split is 'lead' and 'leads'

Subject is 'Rising inventories', so 'leads' is out.
B and D are out
In C, Rising inventories, when they (they is used unnecessarily)...out


In A, Rising inventories, when..........., can lead 'Vs' In E, Rising inventories, if..........., can lead

Lets look at some of the constructions used to to describe a condition and an outcome

1. If you work hard, you get a good score (fact)
2. If you work hard, you will get a good score.(prediction)
3. If you work hard, you may/can get a good score(probability/possibility)

In these construction, 'if' can be replaced by 'when' only when outcome is a fact

Let look at outcome in these options

In the options, outcome has can, it shows a possibility
therefore in this case we cannot have when in the condition
Therefore A is wrong
E is correct

There are various kinds of nouns that act as subjects. To start with, you may have a single- word proper noun or a pronoun that may start a sentence, acting as the subject.
Ex: Tom, Dick or Harry, Jack and Jill, New York, the United States, he, she, it, they, I, we, and so on.

Then, there may be simple noun phrases that are modified by an adjective before them: Ex; Rising inventories, increased pressure, Oil price, share market, tall structures, etc, etc. Some of the adjectives are nouns by themselves though acting as adjectives. In this construction, the verb is always decided by the attributes of the true noun that follows the adjective.

There is one more kind of noun known as the substantive noun; this involves a phrase with a long series of words that may comprise a participle, a gerund, an infinitive, a relative subordinate clause or some such similar thing. For sure, these substantive noun phrases that act as singular subjects will always be followed by a singular verb.
Ex:
Consuming one full pint of alcohol a day is sure to land one in the hospital bed one day.
Swimming against the tide of a river gives enormous strength to body muscles.
Being branded as a national champion is a dream of many.
To be branded as a national champion is a dream of many.
That they have been selected to play for their country in the Championship Trophy is a great honor to them
That they won the one- day World Cup match was the beginning of Sri Lanka's rise to stardom in Cricket.

You might see many of these substantive nouns may comprise plural words, but still, the noun is usually only singular
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Hi Experts, OG says that the use of 'correspondingly' in the original sentence is incorrect and ambiguous. My understanding is that 'correspondingly'(adverb) is modifying the adjective 'unaccompanied'. Adverb can modify adjective, but here the meaning that comes out because of that modification is absurd. Is my reasoning correct? In some posts, unaccompanied is called a "verb". I don't think that is correct.

Also, what is the role of "if" here? Is it an adverb or a conjunction? I've seen that usually if is followed by a clause, but here it's followed by a past participle.

Please advise. Thanks!

1. Yes, your reasoning is correct. For proper meaning, the word "corresponding" has to refer to "increase".
2. Yes, you are right. "Unaccompanied" is a past participle (used as an adjective) referring to "inventories".
3. Conjunctions such as "if", although" etc. are ideally used to join a dependent clause to an indepedent clause, but I remember seeing examples in GMAT, in which they are used to join a phrase (in this case past participle modifier) to the main clause.

rising inventories is subkect so plural
(A) when unaccompanied correspondingly by increases in sales, can lead -

(B) when not accompanied by corresponding increases in sales, possibly leads -leads for inventories incorrect

(C) when they were unaccompanied by corresponding sales increases, can lead- they ambigious, also when is not correct, as sentence conveys negative menainng

(D) if not accompanied by correspondingly increased sales, possibly leads -leads incorrect

(E) if not accompanied by corresponding increases in sales, can lead-correct

if as a conditional there are rules right

if + past tense , then past tense or would + verb

here in choice E, if + past tense(not accompanied) , then present tense ( can lead)

could any experts through light on , where i am misinterpreting things

thanks in advance
cheryn

Hi Cheryn, in choice E, accompanied is not used as a verb but as a past participle.

The sentence could be interpreted as follows:

If (Rising inventories are) not accompanied by corresponding increases in sales, can lead to production cutbacks that would hamper economic growth.
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thanks EducationAisle, so here if condition + present tense verb ( "are") + past participle , then present tense.. it follows the rule. thanks


now one more silly doubt, when to use increase in and when to use increases in , might be very silly but suddenly this confusing me now over the usage of increases in sales.

Hi Cheryn, none of the options seems to be using increase in, and hence this is a non-issue here.

Even if it had been present, I would not use it to split between the options.
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I have a question regarding the usage of increases (singular). Why is increases used in the correct answer choice E?

Rising inventories, if not accompanied by corresponding increases in sales, can lead to production cutbacks that would hamper economic growth.


should'nt it be increase in sales? I'm not able to understand the usage of singular form. please help!

Increases is singular only if we use it as a verb.

1 This strategy increases the company's debt significantly. ← This is fine. Strategy is a singular noun, and it takes a singular verb (increases).
2 These strategies increase the company's debt significantly. ← If we switch to a plural subject (strategies), we'll need a plural verb (increase).

However, when used as a noun, increases is plural.

3 The increase in the company's debt is a sign of... ← Here the subject is increase (singular noun), and it needs a singular verb like is.
4 The increases in the company's debt are a sign of... ← Here the subject is increases (plural noun), and it needs a plural verb like are.
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Thanks Arun, If I understand correctly, Rising Inventories(Subject), if not accompanied by corresponding increases in sales (prep phrase), can lead to production cutbacks that would hamper economic growth.

Inside the prep phrase, increases is used as a noun and both increase and increases are correct.

You're right that corresponding increases is inside a prepositional phrase. That preposition is by. Think of that part of the sentence as saying "if not accompanied by X".

by corresponding increases in sales...

Both corresponding and in sales point to increases. So within the noun phrase corresponding increases in sales, we have another prepositional phrase, in sales. We can again look at it as in X. In this case, the X is sales (noun).

And yes, we should be able to use either increase or increases. I like increases more though.

Rising inventories, if not accompanied by a corresponding increase in sales... ← This one seems to refer to one increase in sales.
Rising inventories, if not accompanied by corresponding increases in sales... ← This one fits better with corresponding. That is, there is an increase in sales to "match" every increase in inventory levels. That makes more sense (to me), given that this sentence appears to be discussing the impact of rising inventories on the entire economy.

This question doesn't test that though, as there is no option with increase.
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AjiteshArun already wrote a couple of great responses to this, so my post is probably a waste of space. But I wrote this offline a week ago, and stupidly never posted it. So here you go, just in case it's useful to hear this stuff in a different voice...

This is entirely about context and meaning. The plural subject, "rising inventories," suggests that we're talking about multiple businesses. If more than one business experiences an increase in sales, we'd have multiple increases, right? So "increases" makes perfect sense - the rising inventories should correspond to multiple increases in sales.

Better yet, we can see immediately that (B) and (D) have a clear subject-verb agreement error: "rising inventories... leads," so we can eliminate those answer choices. (A), (C), and (E) all contain "increases," so this isn't an issue we need to evaluate at all. Better to focus on the differences among the remaining options.

I hope that helps!
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Rising inventories, - The ing form is used as a gerund and a noun in this sentence which is plural
when unaccompanied correspondingly by increases in sales, - this part of the sentence is modifying the rising inventories.
can lead to production cutbacks that would hamper economic growth.


SV Pair – inventories can lead is correct since rising inventories is plural

(A) when unaccompanied correspondingly by increases in sales, can lead

When is usually used to show the time aspect and is not used for conditionals.
(B) when not accompanied by corresponding increases in sales, possibly leads
When is usually used to show the time aspect and is not used for conditionals.

(C) when they were unaccompanied by corresponding sales increases, can lead
When is usually used to show the time aspect and is not used for conditionals.

(D) if not accompanied by correspondingly increased sales, possibly leads
SV Pair – inventories can lead is correct since rising inventories is plural

(E) if not accompanied by corresponding increases in sales, can lead
This is the correct choice.

(A) when unaccompanied correspondingly by increases in sales, can lead

(B) when not accompanied by corresponding increases in sales, possibly leads

(C) when they were unaccompanied by corresponding sales increases, can lead
Eliminating A B C because can lead means there is a possibility of an event taking place

(D) if not accompanied by correspondingly increased sales, possibly leads - plural subject hence lead is better

(E) if not accompanied by corresponding increases in sales, can lead - CORRECT ANSWER

I thought that the conditional of the following form indicates certainty. (particular case in the future WITH certainty)

If PRESENT, then FUTURE.

Example: If Sophia EATS pizza tomorrow, then she WILL BECOME sick.


and, if you have uncertainty the relevant form is:

If HYPOTHETICAL SUBJUNCTIVE, then CONDITIONAL..

Example: If Sophia ATE pizza tomorrow, then she WOULD BECOME sick.


Please correct me, if I am wrong on this one.

egmat
ScottTargetTestPrep
GMATNinja

You basically have it correct, but the point is that a condition presented via the use of "if" is not a certain condition. It's a possible condition.

If Jim sees this, he will be happy.

It is possible but not certain that Jim will see this.

On the other hand, a condition presented via the use of "when" is a certain future condition.

When the sun is shining, Jim will be able to see this.

This sentence presents the condition "the sun is shining" as certain to exist in the future.
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