The use of "discuss"

[Deepurple]

I would appreciate it if you could let me know whether my amendment to the following sentence is proper or not:

"When it discusses with "A" matters about their cooperation and coordination, "B" invariably maintains that wasteful infrastructure duplications should be avoided."

According to Longman's, "discuss" is a transitive verb. Am I right to rewrite the above sentence as follows so that it is grammatically correct?

"When it discusses matters about their cooperation and coordination with "A", "B" invariably maintains that wasteful infrastructure duplications should be avoided."

Thank you.

 

[Horsa]

Yes 'discuss' is transitive. Your use of 'discuss' in the revised sentence is good. However, we cannot refer to an adult person as 'it'. I would change your sentence as follows -

"When B discusses matters relating to their cooperation and coordination with "A", "B" invariably maintains that wasteful infrastructure duplications should be avoided."

I don't feel the original sentence's use of 'discuss' is wrong.

 

[Deepurple]

Thank you Horsa.
However, in Longman's there is another entry under the same word "discuss":

"Your accountant will discuss with you how to complete these forms."

Am I correct to interpret the structure of the sentence as follows: Since "with you" is separated far apart by the noun clause "how to complete these forms", it is placed near after the verb "discuss". In such case, it has nothing to do with the transitive verb "discuss" or not. So do my previous question asked in the same thread. A bit tricky question, isn't it?;-)

 

[Horsa]

Personally, I would still prefer to put 'with you' at the end in this case. But this is a matter of style. You are right the only reason to put it after 'discuss' is because of the distance that would otherwise separate them.

Discuss is followed by one of the following

a) a direct object
b) a 'wh' clause
c) a 'whether' clause

'Transitive' means that a verb must have a direct object not that it must be immediately followed by it. So as I said in my previous post the writer of the original sentence was not wrong.

I hope that clears it up.