Nobody knows exactly how many languages there are in the world, partly

A number is a way to describe what we count. I can't count "100." I can count some languages and determine that there are 100 of them. I'm counting the languages, not the number itself. Similarly, I can measure your foot to see what shoe size you are, but I can't measure your shoe size, which is an abstract concept.

This question is based on Pronoun Usage and Idiomatic Usage.

A vertical scan of the options shows us that Options A, B, and C begin with the conjunction ‘and’. Options D and E begin with the conjunction ‘or’.

If we detect the correlative conjunction ‘between’ placed before the underlined portion begins, the choice between the conjunctions ‘and’ and ‘or’ at the beginning of the options is very easy. The appropriate pair of correlative conjunctions is ‘between-and’.

Furthermore, the pronoun ‘them’ in Option D is ambiguous as the pronoun cannot refer to the ‘language’. The same pronoun error is repeated in Option E. So, Options D and E can be eliminated.

Option B also contains the ambiguous pronoun ‘them’. So, Option B can also be eliminated.

Between Options A and C, there is a lack of parallelism of tenses in Option C. The two verbs “have tried” and “find” should be parallel because they convey two actions closely related to each other. So, Option C can be eliminated.

The pronoun ‘it’ is appropriate because the antecedent of the pronoun is the singular noun ‘language’. The verbs ‘have tried’ and ‘have found’ are parallel to each other. Therefore, A is the most appropriate option.

Jayanthi Kumar.

Two issues here. First, while you're right that there's no rule that two identical pronouns can't refer to different antecedents, it's awfully confusing if they do. Anytime you have a choice between an option that's clear and obvious and one that requires multiple reads to figure out what the heck is going on, you'd always prefer the former.

Second, the phrase "a number of languages" never appears in the sentence -- a pronoun can't refer to something that isn't there!

The takeaway: don't overthink pronoun usage. If you see a pronoun, try to find a logical antecedent within the sentence. If you find one, move on to other issues. If there is no logical antecedent, get rid of the option. If you find a logical antecedent, but it's confusing or requires a fair amount of work to locate, don't eliminate the option quite yet, but be on the lookout for an alternative that clarifies the issue.

I hope that helps!

As Dmitry Farber noted in an earlier post, when we try to do something, we are making an attempt that may or may not be successful. But when we try doing something, we're actually performing the action, perhaps to see if we enjoy it.

For instance, "Tim tried to make raw-cookie-dough pancakes," suggests that Tim made an attempt to make this type of pancake, but may have failed. (How do you cook the pancake without cooking the raw cookie dough?)

But "Tim tried making raw-cookie-dough pancakes," suggests that Tim was trying out a new activity to see if he enjoyed it, and in this case, he succeeded in making the pancakes. (The key is adding the dough at the last possible moment. Also, please don't do this, because salmonella is a thing. )

In this SC problem, it makes more sense to write "tried to count" because we're told that nobody knows exactly how many languages there are -- this means that an attempt was made, but that the attempt may not have been entirely successful. This is more logical than "tried counting," which suggests that someone successfully counted all the languages because he wanted to see if it would be fun.

That said, if you didn't feel comfortable differentiating between those subtle meaning differences, there are some nice, juicy pronoun/logic issues to use as decision points instead.

I hope that helps!

Hello akt715,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, we would like to elaborate on the meaning of the "between A and B" structure seen in Option A.

What this structure refers to is the act of distinguishing either between a language and the sub-languages within it or between a language and the dialects within it.

In other words, here, "A" is "a language" and "B" is "the sub-languages or dialects within it"; B consists of two parts, both of which are contrasted against A.

We hope this helps.
All the best!
Experts' Global Team

1. First of "between.." Jumps out to me. "between" requires "and". Also a Parallelism trigger.

Eliminate D and E.

2. pronoun "them" logical refer to "a language". But Noun is singular. So Eliminate B, D and E.

3. In option C, "who have tried counting it.." here "it" has no clear refferent. Also since "it" is a singular pronoun. How can one count "it"?. for counting one need plural noun/pronoun.

usage of Present tense " typically find"..... convey the meaning that it happens regularly... which is clearly not the case....

Both look ok to me -
... those who have tried to count have found ...
or
... those who have tried counting have found ...

Though GMAT often prefers the use of to-infinitive (which means that you will find it more often in correct answers) but I wouldn't eliminate based on this distinction.
Here, options using 'counting' have errors in them as discussed in my post on page 1.

I'll echo Karishma and Avi here, and add that your example is a little different than the official one.

While "I hated eating carrots," isn't technically wrong, it's less than ideal, because there's more than one way to interpret "eating." Is it modifying "carrots," in the sense that the subject hates the type of carrots that people eat, but is okay with, say, decorative carrots? Or is it modifying "hated" and is simply conveying that the subject hates to eat this particular food?

In a vacuum, I wouldn't get rid of it for this reason alone, but I'd keep the potential confusion in mind when I'm evaluating alternatives.

In the official example, there's no ambiguity with the phrase "those who have tried counting," because without a noun next to "counting," there's only one possible interpretation of what "counting" could be doing here: it's conveying the action that people have tried to do.

The takeaway: there's no rule here, so don't generalize about whether the GMAT prefers "to verb" or "verb-ing." Take each case on its own. If one is clearer or more logical than the other, then you can use it as a decision point. If you're not sure -- and there will be times when you won't be sure, or when either construction could work -- then just move on to other issues.

I hope that helps!

No, it refers to people who tried to count the number of languages/ dialects. Those people have found about five thousand dialects/languages.

'Language' is singular so we require 'it'. Any sentence with them is OUT. => B, D, E are OUT.
Between A & C.
C - Changes the tense + what is 'it' referring to? OUT.

A is the answer.

What if option C uses 'them' in place of 'it' in the second part, will it be correct?
and the sub-languages or dialects within it, but those who have tried counting them typically find

I am confused why we should use 'it' here. As per Manhattan SC, X and Y should follow with plural. So confused here

GMATNinja.

I have a concern in option A with the first "it".
Though I agree with your explanation but I still have a doubt

the said it is as well in the underlined portion of the sentence and we can never rule out the possibility or a path there. It therefore becomes difficult to assume that the stated "it" is correct and correctly refers to the singular language!
Can you please help enlighten!

Thanks

Hi Rajat, as long as you realize that the pronoun used at that place in the sentence is intended to refer to a singular noun (a language), then it is easy to understand that the correct pronoun usage is it and not them (because them can only refer to plural nouns).

This is really the only understanding that is required here.

I fail to understand why them can't refer to both "language and sub-languages". I've come across a rule which states that if a subject is of the form X and Y, it becomes plural. Sub-languages can also have dialects within. So why are we referring to language alone?

Hi rarev22, the intent of the sentence is to convey that there is a difficulty of distinguishing between:
i) A language
ii) Sub-languages or dialects within a language

Since the intent is to refer to Sub-languages or dialects within a language, it is the correct pronoun.

In C, why you were ok with first 'It' but not the second.

Posted from my mobile device