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Nurses General Nursing

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I thought my grammar was one of my strong points; however, I must be wrong. Can anyone offer their opinion on the following sentence.

The soft tissue and bowel lumen (measure, measures) 8 cm in length and (has,have) a 6 cm x 3.5 margin of colostomy deep to the subcutaneous tissue.

which word in the parentheses should I use?

Thanks alot.

Measure and have are my opinions.

Am I right? :uhoh21:

It's measure, you have two nouns, if you had one it would be measures. Think it measures or they measure.

Specializes in Home Health, Primary Care.
Measure and have are my opinions.

Am I right? :uhoh21:

I agree with Julie and orn on this one!! Same rules as before.....single item, add "s", more than one item, no "s."

I thought my grammar was one of my strong points; however, I must be wrong. Can anyone offer their opinion on the following sentence.

The soft tissue and bowel lumen (measure, measures) 8 cm in length and (has,have) a 6 cm x 3.5 margin of colostomy deep to the subcutaneous tissue.

which word in the parentheses should I use?

Thanks alot.

Hi Ted,

I have the exact same sentence that I need to find those answers to. It seems to me that there is only one subject for each of these sets of nouns. For soft tissue and bowel lumen there is only one measurement. Does that mean that they are being measured together? In that case, I think (measures) would be correct. The same thing goes for the margin of colostomy. If they again are being measured together, it seems like it should be (has) as opposed to have. But I've been wrong before. Did you find anything else about it? Thanks.

Marie

I think measures and has that sounds better when you read it. Talked it over with my 18 yo daughter who is EXCELLANT at English and that was her take too!!!!

Specializes in LTC/Behavioral/ Hospice.

I'll put my 2 cents in for measures/has too. Soft tissue and bowel lumen as one unit is my reasoning. If they aren't one unit, I'd switch it to measure/ have. :)

I'll put my 2 cents in for measures/has too. Soft tissue and bowel lumen as one unit is my reasoning. If they aren't one unit, I'd switch it to measure/ have. :)

Ditto!

Hey, did you know a response of less than 10 characters is not long enough?

The soft tissue and bowel lumen

The trick here is to figure out if the word they or it would properly replace the above sentence. Then, depending on what you decide use the combination of either measure/have or measures/has to finish the sentence.

You need to determine if you are describing 2 separate structures or you talking about them in terms of one unit.

Since you are giving dimensions of one complete unit (the soft tissue with the bowel lumen), I will agree with those who have said that "measures and has" are most appropriate --- "measure" and "have" would be appropriate if speaking about separate, but identical measurements (hope that made sense :) ).

Hey everyone,

I was like an office assistant and I had to try and be a medical transcriptionist and my english was horrible. I am now an official RN. Just got hired in today.

Thank you all for your support.

Ted

Specializes in Critical Care / Psychiatry.

I do believe you are supposed to isolate each subjective noun at the first of the sentence and just forget the "and" word altogether. So..."The soft tissue and bowel lumen MEASURES 8 cm in length and HAS a 6 cm x 3.5 margin of colostomy deep to the subcutaneous tissue."

With the words of my high school english teacher echoing in my head this seems correct to me.

Shel

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