How to use "and" to combine two phrases?

Question

Sometimes, I am confused on the correct usage of "and".

Does

A beautiful car and a truck

and

A beautiful car and a beautiful truck.

have the same meaning? I want to know whether "beautiful" can be inherited by the noun "truck".

It is a dumb question, but I really want a clear explanation.

Welcome to ELL and thanks for your question. However, it is hard to understand what you are asking. Please use the edit link to more clearly explain your question. Our Help Center pages explain how to write a useful question. We hope you will ask more questions here! — P. E. Dant Reinstate Monica, Commented Sep 7, 2016 at 2:57
To distribute the modifier beautiful to both nouns in your sentence, we use and like this: A beautiful car and truck. Introducing another article before a subsequent noun "breaks" the inheritance: A beautiful car and a truck. — P. E. Dant Reinstate Monica, Commented Sep 7, 2016 at 3:03
You need to repeat 'beautiful' if you want it to apply to both the car and the truck. — Alan Carmack, Commented Sep 7, 2016 at 3:04
@P.E.Dant Thank you sir, so the "beautiful " is distributed as default. — lycnbb, Commented Sep 7, 2016 at 3:04

Alan Carmack · Accepted Answer · 2016-09-10 01:42:19Z

1

A beautiful car and a truck

The truck is not beautiful or we don't know it's state of beauty.

A beautiful car and truck

Both the truck and car are beautiful.

A beautiful car and beautiful truck

Same as above. Use this to emphasize that both are beautiful or to make it extra clear.

Alan Carmack

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answered Sep 9, 2016 at 17:27

LawrenceC

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