The Federal Reserve Board's reduction of interest rates on loans to

Yes true acknowledge(plural) and attempt are not in agreement with reduction.Again here
both is not linked correctly to trends and attempt but rather appears
to be linked with financial institutions.

The Federal Reserve Board's reduction of interest rates on loans to financial institutions is both an acknowledgment of past economic trends and an effort to influence their future direction.

A. reduction of interest rates on loans to financial institutions is both an acknowledgment of past economic trends and an effort

B. reduction of interest rates on loans to financialinstitutions is an acknowledgment both of pasteconomic trends as well as an effort

C. reduction of interest rates on loans to financialinstitutions both acknowledge past economictrends and attempt

D. reducing interest rates on loans to financialinstitutions is an acknowledgment both of pasteconomic trends and an effort

E. reducing interest rates on loans to financial institutions both acknowledge past economic trends as well as attempt


This is how I worked this out.

D and E are out because reduction is required instead of reducing.

Amongst A, B and C

I broke the sentence down.

In A

i. reduction of interest rates on loans to financial institutions is an acknowledgment of past economic trends.
ii reduction of interest rates on loans to financial institutions is an effort to influence financial institutions future direction.


In C

i. reduction of interest rates on loans to financial institutions acknowledge past economic trends.
ii reduction of interest rates on loans to financial institutions attempt to influence financial institutions future direction.

Attempt to - for plural subject

Hope it helps

We need to be cautious when we say what is plural.

For eg

He made several attempts to clear his exam.

when used as an object , attempts is plural...

when used as a verb attempts is a singular verb.

Hi folks,

I am replying in response to a question here regarding the usage of both..and to link two verbs.
if anyone is interested to know the usage of both...and (not only...but also usage is mentioned as well) please go through the examples under the link :
https://www.grammar-quizzes.com/conj-paired.html

Can some one throw some light on the use of 'reduction' instead of 'reducing' here.

ynk Generally, if we want a noun and there's a noun form available (reduction vs. reducing), we'll go with that. We say "I am involved in research, development, and manufacturing" because there's no word "manufaction" or "manufacturement." We don't want to go with "researching, developing, and manufacturing" for parallelism's sake, unless of course we are using all those words as verbs.

The form possessive + -ing used in D and E ("the Board's reducing") can certainly be correct in other circumstances:

Do you mind my eating the last cookie?
I object to your [i]arriving late.[/i]

In the first case, "eating" is our only option, since there is no separate noun form for "eat." However, in the second case, there is a noun form available. I could have said "I object to your late arrival." However, in this case the meaning changes slightly. In the example above, I might object to the idea of you arriving late, even if it hasn't happened yet. I could use this form before or after the fact. In the "arrival" version, it sounds like you've already arrived late, and now I don't like it.

If you want to see an official Q that shifts between -ing and standard noun forms, check this out. The correct answer only uses -ing for nouns when no other form is available.

building-from-civilization-83997.html

A. reduction of interest rates on loans to financial institutions is both an acknowledgment of past economic trends and an effort
Best option

B. reduction of interest rates on loans to financial institutions is an acknowledgment both of past economic trends as well as an effort
(1) idiom error – “both…as well as…” it is “both...and…”; (2) parallelism error – “…is an acknowledgment both of past economic trends as well as an effort…” it should be “both an acknowledgement…AND an effort…”;

C. reduction of interest rates on loans to financial institutions both acknowledge past economic trends and attempt
(1) meaning error – “…the reduction of interest rates…attempt to influence their future direction.” Doesn’t make any logical sense. How can a “reduction” attempt to do anything?

D. reducing interest rates on loans to financial institutions is an acknowledgment both of past economic trends and an effort
(1) parallelism error – “…is an acknowledgment both of past economic trends and an effort…” it should be “both an acknowledgement…AND an effort…”; (2) preferred to use action noun “reduction” as the subject instead of the -ing form (“reducing”)

E. reducing interest rates on loans to financial institutions both acknowledge past economic trends as well as attempt
(1) idiom error – “both…as well as…” it is “both...and…”; (2) preferred to use action noun “reduction” as the subject instead of the -ing form (“reducing”)

AndrewN,

Please evaluate my reasoning.

Option A:- This is the correct answer choice.

Option B:-
1. "Both-and" is the correct idiomatic expression.
2. Parallelism is an issue in this sentence. The second part of the sentence is not clear. "is an acknowledgment an effort..........".

Option C:-
1. The meaning conveyed in this option statement is that FRB's reduction of interest rates acknowledge past economic trends and attempt to influence their future direction. So FRB's reduction does not do these two things. FRB's reduction is an outcome of the past economic trends.

Option D:-
1. The usage of "an effort" does not make sense with the first part of the sentence. Parallelism is an issue here.

Option E:-
1.Error No.1 of option C.
2. No verb of the main clause.
3. Both-and is the correct idiomatic expression.

Hello krndatta,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, your reasoning is largely correct, but there are a couple of corrections.

Firstly, you seem to have missed the subject-verb disagreement between "reduction" and "acknowledge" and "attempt" in Option C.

Second, Option E does feature active verbs in the main clause - "acknowledge" and "attempt"; of course, these plural verbs are in disagreement with the singular gerund phrase "The Federal Reserve Board's reducing".

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

Pardon the delay in my response, krndatta. In addition to what has been pointed out above by someone from Experts' Global, I think one of the points of your analysis that could use further treatment is the difference between the two ways in which the both X and Y idiom can be used. In the original sentence, is both X and Y plays out flawlessly, with parallel elements in an acknowledgement and an effort. But answer choice (B) gets into trouble by placing the preposition of after the both trigger—we would expect both of X and of Y. The second of is compulsory in such a construct, and not only is it missing here, the and has also given way to a lesser as well as. Answer choice (D) commits the same error by omitting the second of. I do think the biggest issue in both (C) and (E) is the subject-verb agreement mismatch. Either of a reduction or the action of reducing something (in gerund form) should be seen as a singular noun, so acknowledge and attempt, parallel though they may be, miss the mark. (And yes, they are both serving as the verb component of the main clause. Do not get too attached to is in the other options.)

Thank you for thinking to ask. If you answered the question correctly, well done.

- Andrew

AndrewN
Thanks for sharing your two cents.
Was my analysis of the meaning conveyed in options C and E correct?

To be honest, krndatta, I do not read answer choices (C) and (E) much differently, in terms of the general meaning conveyed, than I do the original sentence. Compare truncated versions:

(A) The Board's reduction of rates is an acknowledgement...
(C) The Board's reduction of rates acknowledge[s]...
(E) The Board's reducing rates acknowledge[s]...

Sure, acknowledgement in (A) parallels the noun reduction from earlier, but the context of (C) and (E) allow us to interpret the sentences in a similar manner, just that the emphasis has shifted from the reduction itself to the Board, the body behind the action.

Thank you for following up.

- Andrew

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