We developed our society _______.
Which option out of the three should I use to fill in the blank:
- on the basis of equality
- on a basis of equality
- on an equality basis
And what’s the difference between these 3?
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A bit more smooth than all these would be "We based our society on equality."– Andy BonnerCommented Jun 21 at 14:47
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1 Answer
On the basis of is an idiom meaning
according to : based on Students were chosen/selected on the basis of their grades and test scores.
We could use it with equality. Answer (1) is valid.
On a basis of is not valid. Try keying that into Google, and you get the results for the the version.
On an equality basis has lots of hits too but is much less common than the idiom. Answer (3) is valid too and means the same as answer (1).
answered Jun 21 at 13:14
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My perception, as I just start to think about it, is that "on a ___ basis" is often used in specialized fields like finance. But I guess also things like "I schedule my appointments on a day-to-day basis." Hm. There are definitely some uses in which it fits and some in which it doesn't, but I haven't put my finger on why. Commented Jun 21 at 14:50