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Although the restaurant company has recently added many new restaurant 16 Apr 2019, 03:34
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Although the restaurant company has recently added many new restaurants across the country and its sales have increased dramatically, its sales at restaurants open for more than a year have declined.

(A) the restaurant company has recently added many new restaurants across the country and its sales have increased dramatically, its (there are no shifting of tenses- WINNER. The tenses sounds logical)

(B) the restaurant company has recently added many new restaurants across the country and its sales increased dramatically, its (why change of tenses from present perfect to simple past? What is the logic of shift of tenses?)

(C) many new restaurants have recently been opened across the country and its sales increased dramatically, the restaurant company’s (whose restaurant?)

(D) having recently added many new restaurants across the country and with its sales increasing dramatically, the restaurant company’s …sales…(missing antecedent-its is referring to sales?)

(E) recently adding many new restaurants across the country and having its sales increase dramatically, the restaurant company’s…sales…(missing antecedent-its is referring to sales?)
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Although the restaurant company has recently added many new restaurant 17 Apr 2019, 08:46
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In the original question (choice A),
Although the restaurant company has recently added many new restaurants across the country and its sales have increased dramatically, its sales at restaurants open for more than a year have declined.

Construction - Although CLAUSE and CLAUSE, its sales at restaurants open for more than a year have declined.

I understand that we shouldn't question official answers, but just to confirm my understanding. I have a question -

It seems two clauses can be attached with AND (without comma). Is it a special case, in which ALTHOUGH (subordinator) is introducing two clauses with AND to create parallelism?

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Saunak
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Although the restaurant company has recently added many new restaurant 17 Apr 2019, 18:42
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saunak123
In the original question (choice A),
Although the restaurant company has recently added many new restaurants across the country and its sales have increased dramatically, its sales at restaurants open for more than a year have declined.

Construction - Although CLAUSE and CLAUSE, its sales at restaurants open for more than a year have declined.

I understand that we shouldn't question official answers, but just to confirm my understanding. I have a question -

It seems two clauses can be attached with AND (without comma). Is it a special case, in which ALTHOUGH (subordinator) is introducing two clauses with AND to create parallelism?

Regards
Saunak
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This won't be the first time that the GMAT has broken this "rule", but the more important point here is that this is not a rule at all. This is a style issue, and cannot be applied consistently. Keep in mind that apart from a few things like comma splices, the GMAT doesn't test us on the usage of commas.
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Although the restaurant company has recently added many new restaurant 06 Apr 2020, 22:44
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My doubt is about the reference of the first 'its' in the sentence. Doesnt it seem like the first 'its' after 'and' could refer to country, making the meaning incorrect!
Also i am baffled with this concept of pronoun usage.

For example: Since Walmart opened a new store Walex, its sales have been declining.
Here what does 'its' refer to?

example 2: Walmart has opened two new restaurants in a mall and its sales have declined drastically.
Here what does 'its' refer to?
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Although the restaurant company has recently added many new restaurant 07 Apr 2020, 00:13
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Krishchamp
My doubt is about the reference of the first 'its' in the sentence. Doesnt it seem like the first 'its' after 'and' could refer to country, making the meaning incorrect!
Also i am baffled with this concept of pronoun usage.

For example: Since Walmart opened a new store Walex, its sales have been declining.
Here what does 'its' refer to?

example 2: Walmart has opened two new restaurants in a mall and its sales have declined drastically.
Here what does 'its' refer to?
Show more
In the cases of your two sentences, what "its" refers to is certainly debatable, especially in the case of the second one.

However, since the topic of the sentence version created via the use of choice (A) of the question is clearly the restaurant company, and since a country is not generally described as having "sales," context clues in the sentence rather clearly indicate that "its" refers to "restaurant company."
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Although the restaurant company has recently added many new restaurant 31 Jan 2021, 13:44
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hibobotamuss
Hi, can someone break this down a little clearly? Not convinced with the explanation given here. I still think A has awkward number of 'its' appearing one after the other...doesn't feel clear to me
While the Official Guide often offers "awkwardness" as a justification for eliminating incorrect options, the reality is that "awkward" is a completely subjective term that doesn't actually mean anything. Frankly, tons of CORRECT answers on the GMAT look pretty freaking awkward to me.

In other words: "awkward" is not a good reason to eliminate anything on the GMAT. There are always better reasons than that -- regardless of what the lazy OG explanation-writers might say.

Quote:
(A) Although the restaurant company has recently added many new restaurants across the country and its sales have increased dramatically, its sales at restaurants open for more than a year have declined.
The terms in blue are all the subjects of their respective clauses. Whenever a pronoun is the subject of a clause - or a possessive modifier, as is the case here for the two "its" - the most logical place to look for an antecedent is the subject of the first clause, or "the restaurant company." This makes perfect sense. The company's overall sales have increased even though the company's sales at older restaurants have gone down.

And for what it's worth, using two pronouns to refer to the same antecedent is pretty common, and it's only a problem if the referent is illogical. Here, it isn't.

Quote:
(B) Although the restaurant company has recently added many new restaurants across the country and its sales increased dramatically, its sales at restaurants open for more than a year have declined.
As others have noted, there's an illogical shift in verb tense here. "Has added" and "have declined" are both present perfect, meaning the actions began in the past and continue into the present. However, "increased" is simple past.

While there's no rule forbidding tense shifts within a sentence, there should be some logical reason for the shift. Here, the shift is illogical, since the sentence is basically meaningless unless we're comparing sales in the same period. Contrast this with (A), which keeps all the actions in present perfect.

So (B) is out.

Quote:
(C) Although many new restaurants have recently been opened across the country and its sales increased dramatically, the restaurant company’s sales at restaurants open for more than a year have declined.
First, we have the same verb tense problem as (B). We also have a problematic passive voice construction. While passive voice isn't inherently wrong, the clause "many new restaurants have recently been opened" leaves us wondering who or what was opening these restaurants. Worse still, the singular "its," seems to be referring back to the subject of the previous clause, the plural "restaurants," creating an agreement error. I suppose you could argue that "its" refers to "restaurant company's," but at best this construction is confusing.

So we have all sorts of reasons to ditch (C).

Quote:
(D) Although having recently added many new restaurants across the country and with its sales increasing dramatically, the restaurant company’s sales at restaurants open for more than a year have declined.
There's a clear modifier problem here - the opening phrase seems to be describing the company's sales, leading to the illogical interpretation that the sales are adding restaurants. So (D) is gone, too.

Quote:
(E) Although recently adding many new restaurants across the country and having its sales increase dramatically, the restaurant company’s sales at restaurants open for more than a year have declined.
(E) has exactly the same modifier problem as (D). So we're left with (A).

The big takeaway: be wary of eliminating an answer choice because of "awkwardness" or pronoun ambiguity (more on pronoun ambiguity in this video). Instead, focus on finding four DEFINITE meaning or grammar problems in the other answer choices.

I hope that helps!
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GMATNinja
This is very helpful!
I was thrown off by choice A because I identified the root phrase as what is in blue:
"Although the restaurant company"

I am still confused on the "its" following the "and". To confirm, what are the X and Y elements?

How should I think about this?

Thank you in advance.
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Although the restaurant company has recently added many new restaurant 18 Feb 2021, 20:26
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woohoo921

GMATNinja
This is very helpful!
I was thrown off by choice A because I identified the root phrase as what is in blue:
"Although the restaurant company"

I am still confused on the "its" following the "and". To confirm, what are the X and Y elements?

How should I think about this?

Thank you in advance.
Show more
Typically, if a pronoun is used as the subject of a clause, the most logical place to look for a referent is the subject of the previous clause. For example:

    Tim likes to play badminton, but he hates to lose to three-year-olds, so he refuses to play with his daughter.

Here, "he" is the subject of the last two clauses and "Tim" is the subject of the first one. Because it makes perfect sense that Tim is the performing all of these actions, this construction is fine.

Note: it is NOT a rule that a subject pronoun must refer to the subject of the previous clause. It's just a reasonable first place to look.

Here's the relevant portion of (A) again:

Quote:
Although the restaurant company has recently added many new restaurants across the country and its sales have increased dramatically...
Show more
Because "its" functions as a subject here, my instinct is to go back to the original subject, in this case, "the restaurant company." Because it makes sense to talk about "the restaurant company's sales," I'm confident I've got my referent, and I can move on to other issues. (However, even if the subject of the previous clause didn't make sense, I'd still scan the rest of the sentence for a referent. If I were able to find a candidate elsewhere, I would not treat the pronoun usage as a concrete error.)

I hope that helps!
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Although the restaurant company has recently added many new restaurant 20 Mar 2021, 20:28
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Hi GMATNinja AjiteshArun

One silly basic question to ask:
its sales increased
Should sales increased be always wrong?
I mean how the sales can increase by itself?
it should not always be in passive :
Sales are increased
Sales have been declined.

E.g. Reports have been released
Results are released
( release action on Reports and results is by someone)
Similarly,
Sales are increased due to xyz
How sales can do the action of increase by itself. It must be on receiving side ? is not it?

Yes I know question has: Sales have increased is right in OG question. But this doubt was prevailing in mind.

Could you please throw some light on this doubt with some example?
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Although the restaurant company has recently added many new restaurant 21 Mar 2021, 20:55
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mSKR
I mean how the sales can increase by itself?
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Hi mSKR,

No such thing as a silly question. :)

Increased means ~went up, so sales increased just means ~"sales went up" (here's another example that you may find useful).

To answer the question behind the question, some verbs can indeed be used without specifying a "who" or a "what". However, this does not mean that all verbs can be used that way. This is something that we'll have to evaluate on a case-by-case basis.
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Although the restaurant company has recently added many new restaurant 28 Jul 2021, 20:41
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Although the restaurant company has recently added many new restaurants across the country and its sales have increased dramatically, its sales at restaurants open for more than a year have declined.
In this sentence, I think there is a run-on error, as and -after country- is without the comma. In the first part of the sentence, we already have one clause (Main noun: Rest. Co. and the main verb: has essentially added), but we have one more phrase (noun: its sales and verb: have increased)
Please let me know if I am thinking in the right direction.
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Although the restaurant company has recently added many new restaurant 24 Aug 2021, 19:47
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Abhishekkargwal
Although the restaurant company has recently added many new restaurants across the country and its sales have increased dramatically, its sales at restaurants open for more than a year have declined.
In this sentence, I think there is a run-on error, as and -after country- is without the comma. In the first part of the sentence, we already have one clause (Main noun: Rest. Co. and the main verb: has essentially added), but we have one more phrase (noun: its sales and verb: have increased)
Please let me know if I am thinking in the right direction.
Show more
We don't need a comma after "country" because what comes before the "and" is not an independent clause. The phrase "Although the restaurant company has recently added many new restaurants across the country" is NOT a complete sentence on its own.

We basically have a parallel list within the "although" clause: "Although [X] and [Y]..." Yes, [X] and [Y] each have their own subject and verb, but that alone does not make them complete sentences.

In short, the "and" after "country" is a parallelism trigger. It does NOT link two independent clauses, so a comma is not strictly required.

I hope that helps!
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Although the restaurant company has recently added many new restaurant 10 Oct 2021, 18:30
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A is perfect, don't get confused with pronoun 'its' repetition
B Change of tense has recently added, have declined vs sales increased
C instead of its sales, if it were 'their' sales pronoun reference would have been corrected, but with a illogical comparison of new restaurants and restaurant company
D Having is usually wrong
E same reason as D


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Although the restaurant company has recently added many new restaurant 26 May 2022, 07:04
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Hi avigutman - qq on the OA : (A)

In (A) -- given the two clauses (blue and red) are seperated with an "and" -- this implies THAT the first clause IS NOT THE CAUSE of the second clause

But does that make sense ?

I thought sales have increased dramatically BECAUSE the restaurant company has recently added many new restaurants ?

How else have sales increased ? we know that existing stores ARE NOT DOING WELL.

The logic of "and" too me doesnt make sense..

Quote:

Although the restaurant company has recently added many new restaurants across the country and its sales have increased dramatically, its sales at restaurants open for more than a year have declined.

(A) the restaurant company has recently added many new restaurants across the country and its sales have increased dramatically, its

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Although the restaurant company has recently added many new restaurant 26 May 2022, 07:17
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^^^avigutman - hmm just thinking out loud

Based on the structure of (A) -- we know that
-- Company's new stores ARE NOT THE CAUSE for why Company's sales have increased (given the two clauses are seperated by "and")

Have company's sales increased because of a 3rd party reason - perhaps online sales ?
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Although the restaurant company has recently added many new restaurant 26 May 2022, 09:41
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jabhatta2
Based on the structure of (A) -- we know that
-- Company's new stores ARE NOT THE CAUSE for why Company's sales have increased (given the two clauses are seperated by "and")
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Good question jabhatta2 - I'm happy to see that you're paying close attention to the meaning of the word "and."
However, the author's use of the word "and" (A and B) doesn't necessarily imply a lack of causality (that A wasn't the cause of B).
The author's use of the word "and" merely suggests that the author doesn't feel confident about the causality, or feels that calling out a causal relationship might distract us from his or her main point. As you realized when you "thought out loud," there are several possible reasons for the dramatic increase in sales, so it's perfectly reasonable for the author to avoid committing to a causal relationship in this case (even if a causal relationship does exist).
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Although the restaurant company has recently added many new restaurant 17 Mar 2023, 05:34
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guitarstrings
I must say, this question is quite an eye opener to me. Previously I used to think that "sales" is usually used as singular only.
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Can someone please explain that in option choice A , how "sales have increased dramatically " is correct .
I thought that " sales " is uncountable noun , so it should take singular verb "has " .
Please correct me , where i am going wrong.
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Although the restaurant company has recently added many new restaurant 17 Mar 2023, 05:52
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manavsaraf001

Can someone please explain that in option choice A , how "sales have increased dramatically " is correct .
I thought that " sales " is uncountable noun , so it should take singular verb "has " .
Please correct me , where i am going wrong.
Show more
Clue is in the non-underlined portion:

....its sales at restaurants open for more than a year have declined.
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Although the restaurant company has recently added many new restaurant 18 Mar 2023, 21:51
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manavsaraf001
Can someone please explain that in option choice A , how "sales have increased dramatically " is correct .
I thought that " sales " is uncountable noun , so it should take singular verb "has " .
Please correct me , where i am going wrong.
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Hi manavsaraf001,

The word sales may be either count or non-count, depending on the intended meaning. If we're talking about the department/function, sales is non-count.

1. Sales is where he started his career.

We must go singular in (1). There are other meanings, like "promotions" or "discounts", but if we want to say something about sales (as in, revenue or number of units sold), sales is always plural. So although we can say either "revenue is up" or "revenues are up", we can use only a plural verb if we use the word sales in that context.

2. Sales are up.

3. Sales is up.
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Although the restaurant company has recently added many new restaurant 22 Apr 2024, 09:53
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Although the restaurant company has recently added many new restaurants across the country and its sales have increased dramatically, its sales at restaurants open for more than a year have declined.

(A) the restaurant company has recently added many new restaurants across the country and its sales have increased dramatically, its

(B) the restaurant company has recently added many new restaurants across the country and its sales increased dramatically, its

(C) many new restaurants have recently been opened across the country and its sales increased dramatically, the restaurant company’s

(D) having recently added many new restaurants across the country and with its sales increasing dramatically, the restaurant company’s

(E) recently adding many new restaurants across the country and having its sales increase dramatically, the restaurant company’s
Show more
­

Since I am also attempting EA, here is my analysis. AjiteshArun KarishmaB MartyMurray your feedback is highly appreciated.
Between A and B, what caught my attention is the difference in verb usage, present perfect "have increased" in A and simple past "increased". I eliminated B because:
A - "Have increased" is correct because the increase of sales is still continuing as opposed to B - "increased" that indicates sales stopped increasing. I don't think this is what the original statement means, given that the non undelined portion uses present perfect tense "has added" as well (probably still adding more...).­
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Although the restaurant company has recently added many new restaurant 22 Apr 2024, 20:54
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Since I am also attempting EA, here is my analysis. AjiteshArun KarishmaB MartyMurray your feedback is highly appreciated.
Between A and B, what caught my attention is the difference in verb usage, present perfect "have increased" in A and simple past "increased". I eliminated B because:
A - "Have increased" is correct because the increase of sales is still continuing as opposed to B - "increased" that indicates sales stopped increasing. I don't think this is what the original statement means, given that the non undelined portion uses present perfect tense "has added" as well (probably still adding more...).­
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­Hi Engineer1,

You're correct, but we can look at this slightly differently. Instead of "the increase of sales is still continuing", we can see this situation as "as of now, sales are higher". That is, when we say "sales increased", it seems as if sales did increase at some point in the past, but we don't know whether sales are higher now.

1. Although {new restaurants have been added} and {sales have increased dramatically}, {sales at old restaurants have declined}.­
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