selected from A, B and/or C

[Ju1ian]

Dear Teacher,

1. Please select a main course from beef, chicken, fish and vegetarian.
2. Please select a main course from beef, chicken, fish or vegetarian.

Which one is grammatically collect? Or are they both correct but meaning different things?

Thank you for your help.

 

[Rover_KE]

They mean the same to me.

Rover

 

[Ju1ian]

Thank you for your reply. I think I have actually heard native English speakers say it in either way.

How about these?
3. Please select two main courses from beef, chicken, fish and vegetarian.
4. Please select two main courses from beef, chicken, fish or vegetarian.

Now, in this case, I kind of feel they mean different things.
3 seems to mean that you can select any combination of two kinds (beef and chicken, beef and fish, chicken and fish, etc.)
4 seems to mean that you can select any two courses from one kind (beef steak and beef stew, fried chicken and chicken soup, etc.)

 

[Barb_D]

I read it only as 3.

You are, for example, planning a party, and the caterer will allow you to have two dinner choices. You can choose any two: beef, chicken, fish, or vegetarian.

The actual choices from amont those cateogories (e.g., roast beef, chicken Kiev, broiled salmon, and pasta prima vera) are already identified.