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

Dear Friends,

Here is a detailed explanation to this question-

Meaning is crucial to solving this problem:
Understanding the intended meaning is key to solving this question; the intended meaning of the crucial part of this sentence is that although it is difficult to distinguish between a language and the sub-languages or dialects within it, those who have tried to count have found about five thousand.

Concepts tested here: Tenses + Meaning + Pronouns + Verb Forms

• The present perfect tense (marked by the use of the helping verb “has/have”) is used to describe events that concluded in the past but continue to affect the present.
• The simple present tense is used to indicate actions taking place in the current time frame, indicate habitual actions, state universal truths, and convey information that is permanent in nature.
• The simple past tense is used to refer to events that concluded in the past.
• The infinitive verb form (“to + base form of verb”) is preferred over the present participle (“verb+ing”) for referring to the purpose/intent of an action.
• “distinguish A from B” and “distinguish between A and B” are the only two correct usages of “distinguish”.

A: Correct. This answer choice correctly refers to the singular noun “language” with the singular pronoun “it”. Further, Option A uses the phrase "but those who have tried to count", conveying the intended meaning - that although it is difficult to distinguish between a language and the sub-languages or dialects within it, those who have tried to count have found about five thousand. Additionally, Option A correctly uses the present perfect tense verbs "have tried" and "have found" to refer to actions that concluded in the past but continue to affect the present. Besides, Option A correctly uses the infinitive verb form (“to + base form of verb” – “to + count” in this sentence) to refer to the intent behind the action “tried”. Moreover, Option A correctly uses the idiomatic construction “distinguish between A (“a language”) and B (“the sub-languages or dialects”)”.

B: This answer choice incorrectly refers to the singular noun “language” with the plural pronoun “them”. Further, Option B alters the meaning of the sentence through the phrase “with those who have tried “; the construction of this phrase incorrectly implies that it is difficult to distinguish between a language and the sub-languages or dialects within it, and those who have tried to count have found about five thousand; the intended meaning is that although it is difficult to distinguish between a language and the sub-languages or dialects within it, those who have tried to count have found about five thousand.

C: This answer choice incorrectly uses the simple present tense verb “find” to refer to an action that concluded in the past but continues to affect the present; please remember, the present perfect tense (marked by the use of the helping verb “has/have”) is used to describe events that concluded in the past but continue to affect the present, and the simple present tense is used to indicate actions taking place in the current time frame, indicate habitual actions, state universal truths, and convey information that is permanent in nature. Further, Option C uses the present participle (“verb+ing” – “counting” in this sentence) to refer to the intent behind the action “tried”; please remember, the infinitive verb form (“to + base form of verb”) is preferred over the present participle (“verb+ing” – “counting” in this sentence) for referring to the purpose/intent of an action.

D: This answer choice incorrectly refers to the singular noun “language” with the plural pronoun “them”. Further, Option D incorrectly uses the simple past tense verb “tried” to refer to an action that concluded in the past but continues to affect the present; please remember, the present perfect tense (marked by the use of the helping verb “has/have”) is used to describe events that concluded in the past but continue to affect the present, and the simple past tense is used to refer to events that concluded in the past. Moreover, Option D incorrectly uses the simple present tense verb “find” to refer to an action that concluded in the past but continues to affect the present; please remember, the present perfect tense (marked by the use of the helping verb “has/have”) is used to describe events that concluded in the past but continue to affect the present, and the simple present tense is used to indicate actions taking place in the current time frame, indicate habitual actions, state universal truths, and convey information that is permanent in nature. Additionally, Option D incorrectly uses the unidiomatic construction “distinguish between A (“a language”) or B (“the sub-languages or dialects”)”; please remember, “distinguish A from B” and “distinguish between A and B” are the only two correct usages of “distinguish”.

E: This answer choice incorrectly refers to the singular noun “language” with the plural pronoun “them”. Further, Option E alters the meaning of the sentence through the phrase “with those who have tried “; the construction of this phrase incorrectly implies that it is difficult to distinguish between a language and the sub-languages or dialects within it, and those who have tried to count have found about five thousand; the intended meaning is that although it is difficult to distinguish between a language and the sub-languages or dialects within it, those who have tried to count have found about five thousand. Additionally, Option E incorrectly uses the present participle (“verb+ing” – “finding” in this sentence) to refer to an action that concluded in the past but continues to affect the present; please remember, the present perfect tense (marked by the use of the helping verb “has/have”) is used to describe events that concluded in the past but continue to affect the present. Besides, Option E incorrectly uses the unidiomatic construction “distinguish between A (“a language”) or B (“the sub-languages or dialects”)”; please remember, “distinguish A from B” and “distinguish between A and B” are the only two correct usages of “distinguish”.

Hence, A is the best answer choice.

To understand the concept of "Simple Tenses" on GMAT, you may want to watch the following video (~1 minute):



To understand the concept of "Present Perfect Tense" on GMAT, you may want to watch the following video (~2 minutes):



To understand the concept of using "Infinitive Verb Forms" and "Present Participles" on GMAT, you may want to watch the following video (~2 minutes):



All the best!
Experts' Global Team

Nobody knows exactly how many languages there are in the world, partly because of the difficulty (of? ) distinguishing between a language and the sub-languages or dialects within it, but those who have tried to count typically have found about five thousand.

A. and the sub-languages or dialects within it, but those who have tried to count typically have found -- It correctly refers to languages - CORRECT

B. and the sub-languages or dialects within them, with those who have tried counting typically finding -- them is incorrectly refering to singular language + " with those who have " - wordy construction

C. and the sub-languages or dialects within it, but those who have tried counting it typically find -- IT corrcetly refers to singular language in first part, second IT incorrectly refers to " MANY LANGUAGES"

D. or the sub-languages or dialects within them, but those who tried to count them typically found -- Incorrect use of between - correct use is " between X and Y " not " between X or Y "

E. or the sub-languages or dialects within them, with those who have tried to count typically finding -- Incorrect use of between - correct use is " between X and Y " not " between X or Y "

Nobody knows exactly how many languages there are in the world, partly because of the difficulty (of? ) distinguishing between a language and the sub-languages or dialects within it, but those who have tried to count typically have found about five thousand.

A. and the sub-languages or dialects within it, but those who have tried to count typically have found
B. and the sub-languages or dialects within them, with those who have tried counting typically finding
C. and the sub-languages or dialects within it, but those who have tried counting it typically find
D. or the sub-languages or dialects within them, but those who tried to count them typically found
E. or the sub-languages or dialects within them, with those who have tried to count typically finding


There are 2 clauses in the SC

1.Nobody knows exactly how many languages there are in the world, partly .because of the difficulty (of? ) distinguishing between a language and the sub-languages or dialects within it

2. but those who have tried to count typically have found about five thousand.

In the first clause subject is 'languages' and verb is 'are', SV agreement is correct .Between is used for comparing two things ,here the usage is correct since because in in underlined portion so the comparison between "a language and languages is correct ".

From the above explanation we can zero down A,B and C.

In the second clause the split is within found/find/finding.... in the second clause the verb "tried" is past tense so using found is appropriate in this context

SO finally the answer is "A"


note: Sorry if I am wrong in explanation ,please correct.I have tried my level best.

Hi pavan,

Note the following:

Glad to see your explanation mostly correct, just a few tweakings
There are actually 3 clauses (see the one highlighted above)

We can take down choices to only A or C - reason if you note carefully, the highlighted clause, the pronoun must refer to "a language" - think carefully, is the author referring to dialects withing "the sub languages" or is he/she referring to "sublanguages/dialects within language" - the answer is the latter part, thus we need to use "it"

Hope I could help
Happy going with E-Gmat

My Approach - difficulty of distinguishing between a language and the sub languages or dialects within it.
Use of It is correct, that eliminates B, D, E.
Between A and C, the use of have tried to count typically have found is better than
tried counting it typically find
C is changing the tense in this part and is incorrect.
Hence A is correct

Yes, and there is another substantial issue with C. It says:

...but those who have tried counting it typically find...

No instance of the infamous it should never go unnoticed. What does it refer to here? Well perhaps one of the following two entities:

a) Languages (plural): If the intent of it is to refer to languages, then the usage of it is incorrect, since it (a singular pronoun) cannot refer to languages (a plural noun). So, the least that should have been present in the sentence is them and not it.

Or

b) Number of languages (singular): If the intent of it is to refer to number of languages, then the usage of is again incorrect, since the phrase number of languages is not present anywhere in the sentence. Note that pronouns can only refer to nouns that are present in the sentence; number of languages is not present.

p.s. Our book SC Nirvana discusses this concept of pronouns, its application and examples in significant detail. If you can PM you email, I can send you the corresponding section.

Nobody knows exactly how many languages there are in the world, partly because of the difficulty of distinguishing between a language and the sub-languages or dialects within it, but those who have tried to count typically have found about five thousand.

1) Distinguishing between a language and sub-languages or dialects within it -> it is correct as the sub-languages or dialects are under a single language.

A. and the sub-languages or dialects within it, but those who have tried to count typically have found
Correct

B. and the sub-languages or dialects within them, with those who have tried counting typically finding
1) Point number 1
2) Finding is a gerund and not a verb. We require a verb here

C. and the sub-languages or dialects within it, but those who have tried counting it typically find
1) "Count it". It refers to a single language. How a person count a single language.
2) Find -> Simple present and it provides a meaning as if the number of count will always be true. So it I count the number of languages 10 years from now, we will still get 5000. Which is not the meaning of the sentence.

D. or the sub-languages or dialects within them, but those who tried to count them typically found
1) them -> Point # 1 above
2) Between takes "And" and not "or"

E. or the sub-languages or dialects within them, with those who have tried to count typically finding
1) them -> Point # 1 above
2) Between takes "And" and not "or
3) Finding is a gerund and not a verb. We require a verb here

A. and the sub-languages or dialects within it, but those who have tried to count typically have found - Correct

B. and the sub-languages or dialects within them, with those who have tried counting typically finding

1. Them - sub-languages or dialects are within LanguagE and not LanguagES.
2. With - We need Contrast here.
3. Finding - We need a verb and finding is not a verb

C. and the sub-languages or dialects within it, but those who have tried counting it typically find

1. Counting - Should be infinitive - to count. As it is, "counting" is a participle modifying the verb - have tried.
2. it - The referent here is LanguageS.

D. or the sub-languages or dialects within them, but those who tried to count them typically found

1. Or - Changing the meaning. Should be - and.
2. them - Same as option B.
3. but those who tried to count them typically found - Change in Tense means that those who are trying to count the # of languages at Present are not included.

E. or the sub-languages or dialects within them, with those who have tried to count typically finding

1. Or - Same as D
2. them - Same as B
3. With - Same as B
4. Finding - Again, same as B

What is "those" pronoun refer to? Does it ("those") refer to the languages being counted?

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

Hello Selfmotivated,

I will be glad to help you with this one.


Even if we change the singular pronoun it to plural pronoun them, Choice C will continue to remain incorrect because of the phrase tried counting.

Colloquially, tried counting may sound okay. However, this expression is not considered idiomatic on GMAT SC. The phrase tried to count is an idiomatic phrase.


Hope this helps.
Thanks.
Shraddha

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

We are trying to find the number of distinct languages here.

The sentence tells us that it is difficult to distinguish between a language and its sub-languages or dialects.

The "it" refers to "a language" in the sentence.
"... the difficulty of distinguishing between a language and the sub-languages or dialects within it"

the sub-languages or dialects within a language... Hence use of "them" is incorrect here.

Also, the correct usage is "distinguish between A and B" not "distinguish between A or B".
Hence (B), (D) and (E) are incorrect.

The second "it" is incorrect in option (C) - we are not trying to count a language. We are trying to count "the number of languages" which is not given in the sentence. Also the use of "find" is incorrect. It must be "have found" - those who have tried have found ... present perfect in both cases.

To use find, the construction needs to be something like this: those who try find ...

Answer (A) by elimination though "typically" seems to be a squinting modifier there - is it referring to "count typically" or "typically have found"? Logic tells us that it must be "typically have found" so we need to let it go.

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.