The electronics company has unveiled what it claims to be the world’s

Sir the information you presented above is quite an eye opener. but i would like to draw your attention to the later half of the sentence. In the OA, "as long as" is used to present the length of a computer. is that usage not wrong? How can " as long as" signify length of an object?
As per my knowledge " as long as" is used in 3 scenarios
1. For the duration
2. On the condition that
3. for emphasis before number

Requesting you to please elaborate the solution.

You are referring to the idiomatic use of the phrase "as long as". However here "as long as" is not used as a single idiom.

Here a different idiom " as..as.." is used. The structure of this idiom is:
as+adjective+as+ clause/noun ( the adjective need not be "long" - it could be any adjective including "long".)

He is as tall as I am.
This bench is as long as that bench.
This dish is not as tasty as the one we had last time.

Note that the usage "as long as" in the second example is not as the idiom "as long as" , but as the idiom " as... as...".

Ques- The electronics company has unveiled what it claims "to be the world's smallest network digital camcorder......". In the sentence containing Claims, should it be followed by To be or can is be also used? As in "what it claims is the world's smallest..."


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Dear piyush_89,

I'm happy to respond.

You may be interested in GMAT Idiom Flashcards.

The verb "to claim" is a transitive verb, that is, a verb that takes a direct object. This direct object can be a simple noun:
The suspect claims innocence.
The settler claimed the land by the river.
More interesting usages, such as are likely on the GMAT SC, involve something "noun-like" taking the place of a noun. This could be
a) a "that" clause (technically known as a substantive clause)
b) an infinitive phrase
Thus, we could correctly say:
The electronics company has unveiled what it claims to be the world's smallest network digital camcorder ... (infinitive direct object)
or
The electronics company claims that it has just unveiled the world's smallest network digital camcorder ... ("that"-clause direct object)

The following construction would not work on the GMAT:
The electronics company has unveiled what it claims is the world's smallest network digital camcorder . . .
This would be typical in American colloquial English, but grammatically, it's sloppy. It's very informal and would never be acceptable on the GMAT.

Does all this make sense?
Mike

Hi Expert,
Can you please explain why D and not E?
Claims to be is the right idiom why is claim is being used in this?

This issue has already been covered in quite a bit of detail above. Start with @daagh's post at this link: https://gmatclub.com/forum/the-electron ... l#p1554895, then read the ensuing discussion from there -- plenty of very sharp members have offered their views. The short version: there's certainly no rule that dictates that "claims to be" is correct and "claims is" is wrong.

I have a doubt

Is the use of " world's smallest network digital camcorder " correct???

For example

Right usage : Month of festival
Wrong usage : Festival's month

Similarly, wont "world's smallest network digital camcorder" be incorrect?
instead it should have been The smallest network digital camcorder in the world

Note : My concern is not regarding the use of "which" .... I got that part

Please help!!

Hm, yeah - when you put it that way, the GMAT does look a little bit inconsistent on this. (And for anybody who doesn't recognize it, the reference to the "festival's month" vs. "the month of the festival" is in this OG question: https://gmatclub.com/forum/the-olympic- ... 85874.html.)

But here's the thing: nobody would ever claim that it's an absolute rule that the possessive version ("festival's month" or "world's smallest digital camcorder") is always wrong, and that the version with a preposition is always right ("month of the festival", "smallest digital camcorder in the world"). You just have to think about whether the possessive plausibly makes sense:

• "the festival's month" --> In what sense does the festival somehow "possess" the month? I don't think that makes sense.
• "the world's smallest camcorder" --> Personally, I'd prefer the phrase "the smallest camcorder in the world", but I don't think it's WRONG to say "the world's smallest camcorder." In some sense, the world "possesses"... well, everything in the world. So this isn't completely illogical.

And more importantly: you're never looking for a perfect sentence on the GMAT, just the BEST of five flawed sentences. In other words, find the four sentences that contain the most serious errors (more on this in our beginner's guide to SC). In the question about "the month of the festival", the difference between "the festival's month" and "the month of the festival" isn't the only difference between answer choices (B) and (D) -- there's arguably another reason why the answer is what it is. And as you recognized, there are definitely bigger issues ("which"!) in some of the answer choices in this thread, too.

Bottom line: the form of the possessive is not an absolute rule, though it certainly could affect meaning. And it's hard to come up with official examples in which the difference in the form of the possessive is the ONLY issue, or even the main issue.

I hope this helps!

AjiteshArun , GMATNinja , ChiranjeevSingh, mikemcgarry , egmat , sayantanc2k, RonPurewal , DmitryFarber , MagooshExpert other experts

In option D , is what it claims is correct ? How is the OA - D in this question different from incorrect option C(see below) in terms of usage of 2 verbs in a row ?


https://gmatclub.com/forum/researchers- ... 37248.html
In option C , for the below question, I read that C has two verbs in a row, both of which ostensibly have the same subject ("appears was")

option C-->Researchers in Germany have unearthed 400,000-year-old wooden spears from what appears was an ancient lakeshore hunting ground and is stunning evidence that human ancestors systematically hunted big game much earlier than believed

The difference is that this option has a subject+verb + verb after the what (and not verb + verb). The thing to remember here is that the two verbs are not for the same subject. In fact, the first two elements (subject+verb) should just be ignored if you want to check the structure of the sentence.

(S+V) + (S+V)
This is the question that I think you should solve.
should be read as
This is the question that I think you should solve.
or
This is the question that (in my opinion) you should solve.

(S+V) + V
This is the question that I think cannot be solved.
should be read as
This is the question that I think cannot be solved.
or
This is the question that (in my opinion) cannot be solved.
or
This is the question that cannot, I think, be solved.

Hi Skywalker18,

While this is an unorthodox construction, "claims is" is correct here. As AjiteshArun explained, it's different than the example you mentioned because "claims" and "was" both have different subjects, so there isn't a problem The subject of "claims" is "the electronics company", but the subject of "was" is "what" (referring to the camcorder). The subject of "was" is not "the electronics company". In the other example you mentioned, both "appears" and "was" have the same subject ("what"), which is what makes it problematic.

Hope that clears things up!
-Carolyn

Hi Experts - I don't know the idiomatic nuances between 'claims to be' and 'claims is'. But can we call upon the stylistic preferences for this question to choose between option B and D ? i.e. stacked modifiers (not good) vs modifiers in parallel (preferred style) ?

Both options seemed to be grammatically correct to me when I first attempted the question.

Hi DogGoesWoof,

Yes, we can definitely use that to choose between B and D!

-Carolyn

daagh
here it claims is plural so how singular verb is ?

daagh

Claim as verb
'Claims' is a singular verb. There is no plural verb as 'claims'. 'Claim' can be singular as well as plural verb

I claim/ you (singular noun) claim - singular verbs

He claims, she claims, it claims -- all three are third person singular verbs

We 'claim', 'they claim,' 'you claim' (plural you) etc are plural

Claim as noun

'claim' can be a singular noun

e.g,. The insurance claim, the claim by the School management

'Claims' can be a plural noun e.g. The 'claims' by the agitating teachers have been proved incorrect.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7kcxfICVhY&list=PL0LGZMx8pP21Jx8Er_L5V-HfbPn9DKY7M&index=14

16:29

So I get why "to be" can't be used in this sentence. I also get why "..the smallest network digital camcorder in the world, which.." is acceptable (because which is modifying the noun phrase here). But why can't (c) be the answer? Is it because "it" in "and it weighs" is ambiguous? Thanks