Grammar Question w\poll.

[Mr Pickles]

Which is correct?

1. "... by narrowing down the selection to three candidates."

or...

2. "... by narrowing the selection down to three candidates."

 

[MJinZ]

1)

And spelling mistakes in both............

Actually both work fine, the implications are slightly different however.

 

[BoomerD]

3) "...by narrowing the selection to three candidates..."

 

[Mr Pickles]

1)

And spelling mistakes in both............

Yeah, fixed. That's about the worst time to make spelling mistakes

 

[amdhunter]

4) "...gonna choose 3 people."

 

[brblx]

3) "...by narrowing the selection to three candidates..."

this. 'narrow' does not need an adverb to describe its direction of travel.

but if you must, 2 sounds better.

 

[MJinZ]

this. 'narrow' does not need an adverb to describe its direction of travel.

but if you must, 2 sounds better.

Grammatically...both are correct.

1) One is to "Narrow down";

2) the other is to "Narrow......down to"...

1) One implies finality (down to the three, pick one)

2) The other implies further narrowing is possible, and also possibly a larger pool of selection to begin with.

 

[nakedfrog]

Who doesn't enjoy a good pleonasm?

 

[Drako]

Is it possible to narrow up?

 

[DesiPower]

both wrong

correct is:
nrowd it dwn 2 2

 

[olds]

3) "...by narrowing the selection to three candidates..."

This

 

[zinfamous]

Boomer's is best.

I think 1) is proper, though.

2) looks similar to a split infinitive, no?

 

[KentState]

5) Three enter, one survives.

 

[daw123]

3) "...by narrowing the selection to three candidates..."

This.

 

[nerp]

The pool of candidates is now three.

 

[biggestmuff]

3) "... by narrowing the selection to three candidates."

 

[grrl]

1) One implies finality (down to the three, pick one)

2) The other implies further narrowing is possible, and also possibly a larger pool of selection to begin with.

No, both are correct simply because the phrasal narrow down can be split, no change in meaning is created. However, as brblx said you can drop the down. Or you can use a completely different verb like limit or reduce.

 

[SlitheryDee]

"...by reducing the selection to three candidates..."

 

[TridenT]

".../thread..."

 

[BW86]

I voted 2

 

[KeithTalent]

4) "...gonna choose 3 people."

Lol, that made me laugh.

I go with BoomerD's choice.

KT

 

[wheresmybacon]

3) "...by narrowing the selection to three candidates..."

^

"down" isn't needed

 

[rcpratt]

2 sounds better than 1, but Boomer's sounds better than both.

 

[mjrpes3]

All three (including Boomer) are grammatically correct. Say the sentence out loud a couple of times with the different versions and pick the one you like best. I prefer #2. I don't like Boomer's as much even though it is shorter.

 

[waffleironhead]

the pool is now three, none of which are ye.