Last visit was: 18 Nov 2025, 19:42 It is currently 18 Nov 2025, 19:42
Home
GMAT
Messages
Tests
Schools
Events
Rewards
Chat
My Profile
Close
GMAT Club Daily Prep
Thank you for using the timer - this advanced tool can estimate your performance and suggest more practice questions. We have subscribed you to Daily Prep Questions via email.

Customized
for You

we will pick new questions that match your level based on your Timer History

Track
Your Progress

every week, we’ll send you an estimated GMAT score based on your performance

Practice
Pays

we will pick new questions that match your level based on your Timer History
Not interested in getting valuable practice questions and articles delivered to your email? No problem, unsubscribe here.
Go to My Error Log Learn more
Close
Request Expert Reply
Confirm Cancel
User avatar
daisyhill1
User avatar
Joined: 05 Mar 2013
Last visit: 23 Sep 2013
Posts: 18
Own Kudos:
6
 [1]
Given Kudos: 9
Posts: 18
Kudos: 6
 [1]
Use of THE after Verb-ing ? 03 Jun 2013, 23:34
Kudos
Add Kudos
1
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
This question taken from MGMAT Sentence Correction book.

a)She is the most dedicated gardener on the block, every day watering the more than 50
plants in her yard.

b)She is the most dedicated gardener on the block,every day watering more than the 50 plants in her yard

In the above sentence (a), why is "the" used after watering . Wont the sentence be correct even without using the, say
?
She is the most dedicated gardener on the block, every dav watering more than 50 plants in her yard" ?

Archived Topic
Hi there,
This topic has been closed and archived due to inactivity or violation of community quality standards. No more replies are possible here.
Where to now? Join ongoing discussions on thousands of quality questions in our Verbal Questions Forum
Still interested in this question? Check out the "Best Topics" block below for a better discussion on this exact question, as well as several more related questions.
Thank you for understanding, and happy exploring!
User avatar
koolgmat
User avatar
Joined: 16 May 2013
Last visit: 31 Mar 2014
Posts: 14
Own Kudos:
197
 [3]
Given Kudos: 13
Posts: 14
Kudos: 197
 [3]
Use of THE after Verb-ing ? 04 Jun 2013, 01:14
3
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
divdaisyhill1
This question taken from MGMAT Sentence Correction book.

a)She is the most dedicated gardener on the block, every day watering the more than 50
plants in her yard.

b)She is the most dedicated gardener on the block,every day watering more than the 50 plants in her yard

In the above sentence (a), why is "the" used after watering . Wont the sentence be correct even without using the, say
?
She is the most dedicated gardener on the block, every dav watering more than 50 plants in her yard" ?
Show more


In the first sentence, the phrase "more than 50" acts as a modifier for the object "plants". When you remove this modifier the sentence would be -
She is the most dedicated gardener on the block, everyday watering the plants in her yard. --> which still makes sense.

Consider now that "the" is removed from the sentence -
She is the most dedicated gardener on the block, everyday watering plants in her yard.

This sentence is awkward enough to be GMAT wrong.
User avatar
vishnuns39620
User avatar
Joined: 01 Dec 2012
Last visit: 30 Mar 2021
Posts: 76
Own Kudos:
138
Given Kudos: 68
Status:Admitted to U of M Ross
Location: United States (TX)
Concentration: Strategy, Entrepreneurship
Schools: HBS '19 (D) Stanford '19 (D) Tuck '19 (D) Yale '19 (D) Kellogg '19 (D) Ross '20 (A$) Wharton '20 (D)
GMAT 1: 750 Q50 V42
GPA: 2.9
WE:Consulting (Consulting)
Schools: HBS '19 (D) Stanford '19 (D) Tuck '19 (D) Yale '19 (D) Kellogg '19 (D) Ross '20 (A$) Wharton '20 (D)
GMAT 1: 750 Q50 V42
Posts: 76
Kudos: 138
Use of THE after Verb-ing ? 04 Jun 2013, 05:23
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
divdaisyhill1
This question taken from MGMAT Sentence Correction book.

a)She is the most dedicated gardener on the block, every day watering the more than 50
plants in her yard.

b)She is the most dedicated gardener on the block,every day watering more than the 50 plants in her yard

In the above sentence (a), why is "the" used after watering . Wont the sentence be correct even without using the, say
?
She is the most dedicated gardener on the block, every dav watering more than 50 plants in her yard" ?
Show more

If you read the sentence (b) it seems like there is some comparison being made incorrectly - "watering more than the..." more than what? That's the error . It might have made sense if there was another part of the sentence, something like
"Watering more than the 50 plants assigned to her daily..."or something.

Hope it helps.
Regards,
Vishnu
User avatar
KyleWiddison
User avatar
Manhattan Prep Instructor
Joined: 30 Apr 2012
Last visit: 06 Jul 2016
Posts: 781
Own Kudos:
2,684
 [2]
Given Kudos: 5
Expert
Expert reply
Posts: 781
Kudos: 2,684
 [2]
Use of THE after Verb-ing ? 08 Jun 2013, 23:30
2
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
divdaisyhill1
This question taken from MGMAT Sentence Correction book.

a)She is the most dedicated gardener on the block, every day watering the more than 50
plants in her yard.

b)She is the most dedicated gardener on the block,every day watering more than the 50 plants in her yard

In the above sentence (a), why is "the" used after watering . Wont the sentence be correct even without using the, say
?
She is the most dedicated gardener on the block, every dav watering more than 50 plants in her yard" ?
Show more

This is not a matter of correct or incorrect, it's an issue of meaning. When you say "watering the more than 50 plants" you are stating that she watered her plants and there happens to be more than 50 (agreeing with koolpraps modifier comment above). When you remove "the" and say "watering more than 50 plants" the meaning is changed significantly. Now you don't have a real sense of how many plants she has (perhaps thousands?) and so you don't know if she watered them all - you just know she watered more than 50.

With the GMAT getting more focused on meaning questions, make yourself aware of how the inclusion/placement of little words ('the' in this case) can impact the meaning of a sentence.

KW
avatar
parul1591
avatar
Joined: 12 May 2014
Last visit: 21 Nov 2014
Posts: 10
Own Kudos:
7
Given Kudos: 87
Posts: 10
Kudos: 7
Use of THE after Verb-ing ? 30 Jun 2014, 22:10
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
I have a doubt.

I have understood the use of 'the' in the first sentence.
I can see a different error in the sentence : misplaced modifier.

According to the sentence,
She is the most dedicated gardener on the block, every dav watering the more than 50
plants in her yard.

Doesn't the above sentence imply that the 'block' is performing the action of 'watering' ?

Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Thank you
User avatar
souvik101990
User avatar
Joined: 19 Mar 2012
Last visit: 11 Nov 2025
Posts: 4,321
Own Kudos:
53,089
Given Kudos: 2,326
Location: United States (WA)
Concentration: Leadership, General Management
Schools: Ross '20 (M)
GMAT 1: 760 Q50 V42
GMAT 2: 740 Q49 V42 (Online)
GMAT 3: 760 Q50 V42 (Online)
GPA: 3.8
WE:Marketing (Non-Profit and Government)
Products:
My Reviews
Expert
Expert reply
Schools: Ross '20 (M)
GMAT 3: 760 Q50 V42 (Online)
Posts: 4,321
Kudos: 53,089
Use of THE after Verb-ing ? 03 Jul 2014, 12:08
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
parul1591
I have a doubt.

I have understood the use of 'the' in the first sentence.
I can see a different error in the sentence : misplaced modifier.

According to the sentence,
She is the most dedicated gardener on the block, every dav watering the more than 50
plants in her yard.

Doesn't the above sentence imply that the 'block' is performing the action of 'watering' ?

Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Thank you
Show more

No block is not the subject here. It is fairly clear.
To make the sentence slightly better, I would frame it like:

She is the most dedicated gardener on the block, watering the more than 50 plants in her yard every day.

The noun modifier can be slightly far away from the noun, and that's okay.


Here is a great article by the folks at e-GMAT
noun-noun-modifiers-the-most-versatile-modifier-137292.html
avatar
amikityuk
avatar
Joined: 30 Mar 2017
Last visit: 14 Apr 2017
Posts: 1
Given Kudos: 5
Location: Russian Federation
Concentration: General Management, Entrepreneurship
GPA: 2.9
WE:Information Technology (Finance: Investment Banking)
Posts: 1
Kudos: 0
Use of THE after Verb-ing ? 01 Apr 2017, 12:58
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
I would appreciate if someone could explain to me how "the" changes the meaning here, perhaps with another example.

"She is the most dedicated gardener on the block, every day watering the more than 50 plants in her yard".
"She is the most dedicated gardener on the block, every day watering more than 50 plants in her yard".
"She is the most dedicated gardener on the block, every day watering more than the 50 plants in her yard".

I understand that the third one means that she is watering not only those 50 plants but more.

But 1st vs 2nd puzzles me, look very close, except "the more than 50 plans" sound awkward.

KyleWiddison

This is not a matter of correct or incorrect, it's an issue of meaning. When you say "watering the more than 50 plants" you are stating that she watered her plants and there happens to be more than 50 (agreeing with koolpraps modifier comment above). When you remove "the" and say "watering more than 50 plants" the meaning is changed significantly. Now you don't have a real sense of how many plants she has (perhaps thousands?) and so you don't know if she watered them all - you just know she watered more than 50.
KW
Show more
User avatar
ccooley
User avatar
Manhattan Prep Instructor
Joined: 04 Dec 2015
Last visit: 06 Jun 2020
Posts: 931
Own Kudos:
1,642
 [12]
Given Kudos: 115
GMAT 1: 790 Q51 V49
GRE 1: Q170 V170
Expert
Expert reply
GMAT 1: 790 Q51 V49
GRE 1: Q170 V170
Posts: 931
Kudos: 1,642
 [12]
Use of THE after Verb-ing ? 12 Apr 2017, 12:25
9
Kudos
Add Kudos
3
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
amikityuk
I would appreciate if someone could explain to me how "the" changes the meaning here, perhaps with another example.

"She is the most dedicated gardener on the block, every day watering the more than 50 plants in her yard".
"She is the most dedicated gardener on the block, every day watering more than 50 plants in her yard".
"She is the most dedicated gardener on the block, every day watering more than the 50 plants in her yard".

I understand that the third one means that she is watering not only those 50 plants but more.

But 1st vs 2nd puzzles me, look very close, except "the more than 50 plans" sound awkward.

KyleWiddison

This is not a matter of correct or incorrect, it's an issue of meaning. When you say "watering the more than 50 plants" you are stating that she watered her plants and there happens to be more than 50 (agreeing with koolpraps modifier comment above). When you remove "the" and say "watering more than 50 plants" the meaning is changed significantly. Now you don't have a real sense of how many plants she has (perhaps thousands?) and so you don't know if she watered them all - you just know she watered more than 50.
KW
Show more

We're going a bit beyond GMAT territory here, but I'll give it a shot. I'll also use a different example sentence to make it a bit clearer. I'm going to swap out 'more than 50' for the word 'many'. These words serve exactly the same purpose, but I think it's easier to 'hear' the difference when you use a shorter, more common word rather than an awkward-sounding phrase like 'more than 50'.

1. My daughter invited the many students in her kindergarten class to her birthday party.

2. My daughter invited many students in her kindergarten class to her birthday party.

In the first sentence, she invited all of the students in her class. In the second sentence, she invited many of them, but maybe not all of them. 'The' is a definite article; definite articles are used for a lot of different things in English, but one reason they're used is to express this particular distinction. 'The many students' means that you're talking about all of the students; 'many students' means you're talking about a lot of students, but it might not be all of the students in the room.

Similarly, 'the more than 50 plants' means you're talking about all of the plants; 'more than 50 plants' means you're talking about a particular number of plants, but it might not be all of them.
avatar
simranjeetdua
avatar
Joined: 08 Mar 2019
Last visit: 04 Feb 2022
Posts: 2
Given Kudos: 28
Posts: 2
Kudos: 0
Use of THE after Verb-ing ? 06 Jun 2019, 01:51
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
not able to understand the "the" part
User avatar
VerbalBot
User avatar
Non-Human User
Joined: 01 Oct 2013
Last visit: 04 Jan 2021
Posts: 18,836
Own Kudos:
986
Posts: 18,836
Kudos: 986
Use of THE after Verb-ing ? 29 Dec 2021, 05:53
Kudos
Add Kudos
Bookmarks
Bookmark this Post
Hello from the GMAT Club VerbalBot!

Thanks to another GMAT Club member, I have just discovered this valuable topic, yet it had no discussion for over a year. I am now bumping it up - doing my job. I think you may find it valuable (esp those replies with Kudos).

Want to see all other topics I dig out? Follow me (click follow button on profile). You will receive a summary of all topics I bump in your profile area as well as via email.

Archived Topic
Hi there,
This topic has been closed and archived due to inactivity or violation of community quality standards. No more replies are possible here.
Where to now? Join ongoing discussions on thousands of quality questions in our Verbal Questions Forum
Still interested in this question? Check out the "Best Topics" block above for a better discussion on this exact question, as well as several more related questions.
Thank you for understanding, and happy exploring!
Moderators:
miag
188 posts
u1983
Current Student
710 posts
MikeScarn
Current Student
275 posts