Which one of the following two sentences is more correct/appropriate than the other? Why?
- That's a both interesting and challenging problem.
- That's both an interesting and challenging problem.
conjunctionspredeterminerssentence-choicesentence-constructionword-order
Which one of the following two sentences is more correct/appropriate than the other? Why?
- That's a both interesting and challenging problem.
- That's both an interesting and challenging problem.
Best Answer
The best way to write this sentence is to make it simple and direct by eliminating the somewhat awkward-sounding phrase using "both" (in any version): "That's an interesting and challenging problem."
This says the exact same thing and is much more to the point. I spent many years on a newspaper copy desk and would strongly recommend grammar and composition guidelines found in Strunk & White's "The Elements of Style." One of their Elementary Principles of Composition is "Omit needless words."