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I wonder if it's alright for us to drop words like verbs, prepositions or adjectives for different subjects in the same sentence if repeated.

Consider this sentence:

"My son was born in 1975 and my daughter was born in 1982."

Would it be better or at least alright to drop the repeated words at all? Do we need any extra commas if so?

"My son was born in 1975 and my daughter in 1982."

OR

"My son was born in 1975 and my daughter 1982."

OR

"My son was born in 1975, and my daughter, 1982."

If this is ok, how would this best play out with more than two subjects?

"My son was born in 1975, my daughter was born in 1982 and my niece was born in 1988."

Would the following be ok?

"My son was born in 1975, my daughter in 1982 and my niece 1988."

Of course, I would prefer to not sidestep the issue by rewording, eg:

"My son, daughter and niece were born in 1975, 1982 and 1988, respectively."

And side question, what about the repeated words "my"? Can they be dropped too?

"My son was born in 1975, daughter in 1982 and niece 1988."

TomAa
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2 Answers2

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For the first, this is the most organic: "My son was born in 1975 and my daughter in 1982."

For the second: "My son was born in 1975, my daughter in 1982, and my niece 1988." I added a "," before the niece part, that's more correct grammatically.

This one also works, but feels kinda robotic, guess it works if the person in questions it's very formal regarding their speech: "My son, daughter and niece were born in 1975, 1982 and 1988, respectively."

In any case, take in consideration, is this for narration or dialogue? If the latter, remember people aren't exactly 100% articulate while talking all the time. Maybe they'll be too concise, maybe too convoluted, maybe what they said was badly structured. And they'll probably don't even notice.

So if that bunch of sentences are dialogue, any option would technically work.

Well, almost...: "My son was born in 1975, daughter in 1982 and niece 1988." This sentence reads weirdly, same with the second of the first group, regarding the "niece 1988" part.

Glorfindel
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Erin Tesden
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    I'm mainly curios about just how proper the grammar of it actually is. I know I've come across this problem when writing in the past but can't remember whether I ended up dropping or not. Would dropping those repeated words be ok for narration/formal writing? Would be great if it is and if it's clear to read cus it will make things concise. – TomAa Jul 06 '21 at 00:59
  • @TomAa Formal writting can be repetitive and even robotical if it needs to be. But if you are doing narration and want to be engaging you can totally disregard those repetitve phrases and just change them all together. – Erin Tesden Jul 07 '21 at 04:38
  • @TomAa Example: From "My son was born in 1975 and my daughter was born in 1982" or simmilar alternatives, you can say "My son was born in 1975, and seven years later, my daughter." Sounds better, I think – Erin Tesden Jul 07 '21 at 04:40
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enter image description here

As shown in the screenshot, I found a news article that omitted repitition in the form of this:

"My son was born in 1975, daughter 1982 and niece 1988."

I guess it's grammatically acceptable to do this then 🤷🏾‍♂️

TomAa
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