help me understanding this sentence.

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hotrange

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Hi, i have hard time understanding this below phrase/sentence from agreement.

"Handling any container, transportable tank, pallet of any other similar article of transport used for consolidated goods, may or may it not fit with I.S.O standard, Containers and/or Cargo within the Terminal provided that Company is not obliged to handle any Container which is of unusual size or dimensions."

first i broke down sentence into two parts

first part : Handling any container, transportable tank, pallet of any other similar article of transport used for consolidated goods, may or may it not fit with I.S.O standard, Containers and/or Cargo within the Terminal

second part : provided that Company is not obliged to handle any Container which is of unusual size or dimensions."

i believe second part means that company is not responsible for handling container that is unusual size or dimension.

but i have hard time understanding first part of sentence.

can some one help me to rephrase this sentence so i can understand better?

thanks
 

Roman55

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I am not a teacher.

Are you sure that you've copied this correctly? If you have it was written by a non-native because it's full of mistakes, and the punctuation is all over the place. No wonder you are having trouble understanding it.

e.g. 'pallet of any other similar article', 'may or may it not fit' and the entire last section from 'Containers and/or Cargo...' to the end.
 

hotrange

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Thank you for your reply.

Yes i have copied the sentence conrrectly.

and it is even from service agreement!! :cry:

i will try my best to interpret this phrase.

Thank you again for your reply!
 

SoothingDave

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Yes, the sentence is a complete mess, but they do seem to be saying that they will handle goods whether they are in ISO standard containers or not. But that they are not obligated to handle containers that are "unusual size or dimension."
 

Charlie Bernstein

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Hi. I have hard time understanding this below phrase/sentence from an agreement.

"When handling any container, transportable tank, pallet or any other similar article of transport used for consolidated goods [no comma] that may or may it not fit with I.S.O standards for containers and/or cargo within the terminal, [The word provided makes no sense. That long dependent clause should end with a comma.] the company is not obliged to handle any container which is of unusual size or dimensions."

First I broke down the sentence into two parts:

First part: [No space before the colon.] Handling any container, transportable tank, pallet of any other similar article of transport used for consolidated goods, may or may it not fit with I.S.O standard, Containers and/or Cargo within the Terminal

Second part: provided that Company is not obliged to handle any Container which is of unusual size or dimensions."

I believe the second part means that the company is not responsible for handling containers that are unusual sizes or dimensions.

But I have a hard time understanding the first part of the sentence.

Can some one help me to rephrase this sentence so I can understand it better?

Thanks. [Always end sentences with periods, exclamation points, or question marks - even if the sentence is just one word.]

Yes, you understood the sentence exactly right. Well done! It's a very bad string of words. (I won't call it a sentence!)

The first part of the sentence is called a dependent clause. That means two things:

- It is not a complete sentence.
- It does not change the meaning of the sentence it is part of.

Dependent clauses often start with the words if or when. Commas help readers know where dependent clauses begin and end.

Tips:

- ALWAYS capitalize the word I!
- ALWAYS capitalize the first letter of a sentence!
- Review your rules for articles. That will help you learn when to use a, an, and the. This is important for making your English sound natural.

PS - Roman is being kind. Many native English speakers cannot write well. This could easily have been written by one of them.
 
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