's'

Hi MML,

As far as I can see most of those 'S's are correct. The way it is might be okay but I think taking the 's' from 'methods' and changing 'are' to 'is' would read a little better, as would making the whole thing two sentences instead of one. Maybe moving some words around might also help - it seems a little 'bulky' at the moment. There are two extra ways I can think of putting it. Either way, if someone reading this already knows it's referring to more than one label it would be better to take the word 'two' out. Here's the slightly altered original first sentence with the other two ....

"The expression method of the nutrition labels is different."
"The nutrition labels have different methods of expression."
"The nutrition labels are expressed differently".

In the second sentence it would probably be better to change 'have' to 'need' and take 'the' out - "We need to do some calculations to enable comparison of nutrient contents." This could be phrased, "We need to do some calculations to compare nutritional content." (Or "....compare the nutritional contents")

Does the whole thing express the original idea/meaning? - "The nutrition labels have different methods of expression. We need to do some calculations to compare nutritional content."

Just my 'take' on it!

Hi Shekeda,

Very many thanks. It really looks better after re-structuring.

BTW, can I say "The expression method of the nutrition labels are different." ? As in the case "The nutrition label of product A and product B are different." (i.e. "The nutrition label of product A and the nutrition label of product B are different." )

Thanks again.

MML ^_^

Yes, you can.

Hi Joe,

Thank you very much.

I'm still confused. Do you mean that both of the following sentences are correct? Or they have different meaning?

- The expression method of the nutrition labels are different.
- The expression methods of the nutrition labels are different.

Regards,
MML

How about the other option :
- The expression method of the nutrition labels is different.

Joe is wrong.

"The expression method of the nutrition labels are different."

is wrong. The verb must agree in number with the noun it modifies.

"The expression method of the nutrition labels is different."

is grammatically correct, but does not bring across the meaning that was intended.

the best is:

"The expression methods of the nutrition labels are different."

because you are saying that the method used on one label is different from the method used on the other label - that there are two methods in use here. If you use the singular instead of the plural here, then you mean that they are the same essential method, but that they are different in some superficial way, like the font or the color in which they're printed.

Thx Eos.

What about the following ?

(A) "The nutrition label of product A and product B are different."

(B) "The nutrition label of product A and the nutrition label of product B are different."

Really sorry for raising questions repeatedly.

Regards,
MML

the rule still applies; the singular subject "label" requires a singular noun form - "is". But also you are getting into a 'grey' area, that of 'style'.

The style of your phrasing is poor (judgment call, rules are vague),
and Eos' version would be preferable.

Also the style of the original quote is rather poor, misleading, and 'wordy', i would suggest instead of:

"The expression methods of the two nutrition labels are different, we have to do some calculations to enable comparison of the nutrient contents."

This:

Since the nutritional information on both labels is expressed differently, some calculation is required for comparison.

Hi BoGoWo,

Thanks a lot for your comments.

MML

Nicely put, BoGoWo.

(A) "The nutrition label of product A and product B are different." is incorrect. You can say either
"The nutrition labels of product A and product B are different."
or
"The nutrition label of product A and product B is the same."

Again, if the point is that they are different, then you must treat them as two (plural) labels. If it is the exact same label on both products, you can treat them as a single label, but it's still clearer to refer to them in the plural.

(B) "The nutrition label of product A and the nutrition label of product B are different." is correct.

Thanks, all of you.