Grouping of "or" and "along with"

Question

I was confronted with the following sentence

Pass either exam 480 or 483 along with exam 486.

and wonder, if the options for me are

480
483 and 486

or this:

480 and 486
483 and 486

Is this obvious to the native English reader? And if so, why? It is not obvious to some non-natives including myself.

It is a hair ambiguous, though I would assume (480+486) or (483+486). — Hot Licks, Feb 28 '20 at 02:00
@HotLicks I guess the reason you assume it is (480+486) or (483+486) is because of the meaning, rather than the language? — Evgeniy Berezovsky, Feb 28 '20 at 02:09
If exam 486 needs to be passed, a comma is required: Pass either exam 480 or 483, along with exam 486. — Tinfoil Hat, Feb 28 '20 at 02:17
Thanks @TinfoilHat. I'd be interested to know what's your language background? American? — Evgeniy Berezovsky, Feb 28 '20 at 02:19
And I would assume that the lack of a comma is an error; I would take (and hope to pass) exam 486. — Tinfoil Hat, Feb 28 '20 at 02:24
Best to check with your dean of studies or your supervisor. Of course, if you pass 483 + 486, you’ve satisfied the requirements of both interpretations. Regarding the comma: I can’t speak for AmE on this, but neither AuE nor BrE requires one for your second interpretation. A comma separating “480” from “or” would force the parsing to your first interpretation. — Lawrence, Feb 28 '20 at 10:02
@HotLicks; the sentence could have been 'ice cream or cheese and biscuits', which doesn't mean ice cream and biscuits :) — JMP, Nov 24 '20 at 09:25
Does this answer your question? Precedence of "and" and "or" << Pass either exam 480 or 483, along with exam 486. >> is unambiguous: [C] and [A or B]. //// << Pass either exam 480 or 483 along with exam 486. >> is ambiguous: [A] or [B + C] or as before [A or B], + [C]. — Edwin Ashworth, Nov 24 '20 at 15:35
https://trainingsupport.microsoft.com/en-us/mcp/forum/all/what-are-the-required-exam-to-get-mcsa-web/06a743be-a75a-434b-9a69-f51cfa0eac68 — Lambie, Jun 16 '22 at 17:28

David · Accepted Answer · 2022-06-16T16:59:21.593

1

It is ambiguous. It needs a comma to distinguish between:

“Pass either exam 480, or 483 along with exam 486”

= 480 or (483 +486)

and

“Pass either exam 480 or 483, along with exam 486”

= (480 or 483) + 486

The only argument for the one option is the lack of qualification of 483 by “exam”, favouring the second. But I regard that as weak at best, certainly not dispelling the ambiguity. The comma, I believe, does.

Additional observation

I find “along with” poor. “Together with” might be better, but “and” has exactly the same meaning and two fewer syllables. This is does not address the ambiguity, but, all things being equal, fewer words give greater clarity.

edited Jun 16 '22 at 16:59

answered Jul 22 '21 at 18:16

David

12,625

It's certainly ambiguous but replacing 'along with' by 'and' does not resolve the ambiguity. To do that would require a comma in one of the same positions as when using 'along with'. – BoldBen Jun 13 '22 at 03:14
@BoldBen I did not write that "replacing 'along with' by 'and' resolves the ambiguity (which it certainly does not). I wrote that "It needs a comma to distinguish [the two]" i.e. to resolve the ambiguity. The remark about "along with" was a supplementary linguistic observation, as the P.S. implies. Of course, to quote a famous person, "the fewer words there are, the fewer words about which doubt may be entertained". The comma is more visible with fewer words after it. I have edited to clarify. Do you still have reservations about the answer? – David Jun 16 '22 at 16:59

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 28 '20 at 07:26

Sometimes I try to just try to insert a variable to see if it helps: "Either A or B and C" Does that make it anymore clear? It's still ambiguous to me and if you happen to pass the first one and neither of the last 2, I'd argue it. Lol. I think she means 1st or 2nd exam as well as the 3rd exam.

Grouping of "or" and "along with"

2 Answers2