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'book' or 'books'?

I suspect that it should be 'book', because the full sentence should be 'the first book and the third book'.

Right?

2 Answers 2

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It'll be books in this case.

While that's decent reasoning, it's not quite right. The full sentence would be

the first book and the third book

Two separate books and you're considering both of them in

the first and the third books

....so, you use the plural.

2

In your example, you would generally use the plural

The first and the third books are...
The first and third books are...

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