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pk6969
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In an attempt to guarantee the security of its innovative water purifi 25 Jun 2021, 07:48
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Why is subjunctive wrong here?
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In an attempt to guarantee the security of its innovative water purifi 25 Jun 2021, 12:55
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pk6969
Why is subjunctive wrong here?
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Hello pk6969,

I will be glad to help you with this one. :-)


The word "prohibit" is not considered a trigger word that requires the usage of the subjunctive verb. Rather this word is generally followed by a noun/pronoun. For example, He prohibited A from doing X. Therefore, Choice A is incorrect.


Hope this helps. :-)
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In an attempt to guarantee the security of its innovative water purifi 11 Aug 2021, 23:44
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Why we should use Ving after "agreement" ?

Is that indicates the contents of the agreement ?
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In an attempt to guarantee the security of its innovative water purifi 12 Aug 2021, 02:48
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In an attempt to guarantee the security of its innovative water purification method, the company required each employee to sign a confidentiality agreement prohibiting that its water purification methods be disclosed to companies using an analogous purification process.


(A) prohibiting that its water purification methods be disclosed to companies

(B) prohibiting them from the disclosing of its water purification methods to any company

(C) prohibiting disclosure of its water purification methods to any company

(D) that would prohibit them from disclosure of its water purification methods to companies

(E) that would prohibit its water purification methods to be disclosed to a company
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the idiom is
prohibit somebody from DOING.
we need "doing". not noun for this idiom. doing refer to the noun after "prohibit".

"the disclosing" is not right. in dictionary, there is no word "disclosing", but there is the noun "learning". why
"learning" , though looking like a participle/gerund, is a pure noun such as disclosure or action.

a pure noun can go with "the". "the learning" is correct.

"disclosing' appear in a sentence because it is a participle or gerund. participle is a form of doing which has some but not all features of adjective and gerund is a form of doing which has some but not all some feature of noun. gerund ,not having all feature of a noun , can not go after article "the".

frankly, I wish you to review this point in grammar books. find a good books because most grammar book dont explain enough about this point while gmat test this point frequently because this point is basic.

"the disclosing" is wrong because "disclosing" is not a pure noun and, so, can not go with "the"

in " prohibit somebody from doing ", "doing" is participle refering to somebody .
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In an attempt to guarantee the security of its innovative water purifi 12 Aug 2021, 14:46
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I thought that prohibit was followed up with "from" whereas forbid was followed up with "to"

When you say "prohibit from", the correct form of the idiom is -

"prohibit someone/something from something"

For example -
The court ordered the Bureau of Immigration to prohibit the accused from leaving the country.

Another way in which "prohibit" can be used is "prohibit something"

For example -
Kuwait was the only nation to prohibit the entry of Syrian nationals prior to Trump's executive action
Reddit's rules strictly prohibit revealing anybody's private personal information (Note here that "revealing ..." is a noun).

Let us look at the answer options -

Option A - Incorrect.
"prohibiting that its water purification methods be disclosed to companies" - Note that "prohibit" does not take the command subjunctive.

Option B - Incorrect.
"them" is incorrect. "each employee" is singular.

Option C - Correct.
This uses the second form of the idiom - "prohibit X"
X = the noun phrase "disclosure of its water purification methods to any company"

Option D - Incorrect.
"that would prohibit them from disclosure of its water purification methods to companies"

"them" is incorrect as "each employee" requires a singular pronoun.
"prohibit X from doing Y" is the correct idiom. "disclosing" should be used instead of "disclosure".
"would prohibit" - uses future in the past form "would". Implies that prohibition occurs some time after "signing". Illogical. Employees are prohibited from disclosing information as soon as they sign the agreement.

Option E - Incorrect.
Note that "prohibit + infinitive (to + Verb)" is not idiomatic.
"that would prohibit" is incorrect.

Hope this helps
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But we have "required" in (A) that would take "subjunctive"?
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In an attempt to guarantee the security of its innovative water purifi 29 Aug 2022, 11:41
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We need an adjective phrase that modifies the word 'agreement'.
The present participle phrase 'prohobiting...' modifies its precedence 'agreement' .
Besides, C is not redundant.
Therefore, Option C is the correct answer.
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In an attempt to guarantee the security of its innovative water purifi 18 Jun 2023, 01:37
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Hi Experts, KarishmaB

are options D & E incorrect because, as per the meaning of the sentence, the agreements were prohibiting at that time and thus we don't require the conditional tense "would".

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Kitty
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In an attempt to guarantee the security of its innovative water purifi 23 Jun 2023, 01:24
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KittyDoodles

You have a point. Normally, you'd only use this kind of construction if the prohibition happened later. For instance, we say things like "She wrote a book that would serve as an influence on several generations of journalists." However, we can also use "would" if we are emphasizing the (known) future effects: "In order to keep his job, he had to sign an agreement that would prevent him from receiving overtime pay." That doesn't seem like what we want in the original sentence, but I'd say the idiom problems with the use of "prohibit" are the most compelling reasons to cut D/E. (See the Most Helpful Reply by CrackverbalGMAT.)
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In an attempt to guarantee the security of its innovative water purifi 14 Sep 2024, 21:50
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