Duplicate

[Jiayun]

You can keep the content of this report so long as it does not duplicate the other reports.

Is the word 'duplicate' correctly used in the above sentence?

 

[Tarheel]

Yes.

 

[lotus888]

Try:

You can keep the contents of this report as long as it doesn't duplicate anything in the other reports.


--lotus

 

[emsr2d2]

What do you mean by "You can keep the contents of this report"?

 

[lotus888]

I'm surmising the context is an employee who wants to submit a report to the manager. The manager wants to make sure none of the contents in the report are duplicated by another report from another employee. The employee can keep the contents of his report as long as it is not duplicated by another report.


--lotus

 

[emsr2d2]

I can surmise that too, lotus, but I'd like to hear from the OP.

 

[Jiayun]

Yes. the context is exactly the same as what Lotus has described. In Lotus' reply, Lotus used "it" to refer to "contents", should the word "they" be used instead of "it"?

 

[Tdol]

I would use content.

 

[Tarheel]

Yes. the context is exactly the same as what Lotus has described. In Lotus' reply, Lotus used "it" to refer to "contents", should the word "they" be used instead of "it"?

Yes, it should.

(Note that Tdol said it should be content, and I do not disagree.)