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I want to know more about the end of this sentence:

  1. Whether it’s a cow or a goat that’s producing the milk, we can provide a suitable solution that meets the requirements of the customer, the farmer and the animal.
  2. Whether it’s a cow or a goat that’s producing the milk, we can provide a suitable solution that meets the requirements of customers, farmers and animals.

Sentence (1) sound weird to me, because there are different customers, farmers and animals, and I would prefer (2). However, I am not sure that much.

Which one should I choose?

Also, why is 'the' is used, because the sentence does not refer to a specific customer, farmer, and animal?

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  • I'd be interested to see why this is true, from a grammarian's point of view, but 1) is the better version, no doubt. It sounds like 'advertising copy'. 2) sounds like a school essay. [I don't think either is strictly 'wrong', btw]
    – DoneWithThis.
    Aug 18, 2018 at 14:46
  • #1 sounds better to me, because you start off by saying "a cow or a goat", which implies one animal, hence "the animal" and not "animals". But I think it's mostly a matter of taste.
    – stangdon
    Aug 18, 2018 at 14:51
  • I see no reason to suggest any of the four alternatives here are any "better" or "worse" than any other. It's fine with bare singular or plural forms, with or without a preceding definite article the. They're all just equally valid stylistic choices.
    – FumbleFingers
    Aug 18, 2018 at 15:54
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    Surely a cow and a goat in this context are merely representative of their species, as in: The dog is a loyal friend but it's the horse that one rides.Equally: The pen is mightier than the sword. All of these use the singular to represent the group.
    – Ronald Sole
    Aug 18, 2018 at 16:09

1 Answer 1

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Sentence 1 is correct because it finishes with a singular subject, matching the singular subject it starts with:

Whether it’s a cow or a goat that’s producing the milk, we can provide a suitable solution that meets the requirements of the customer, the farmer and the animal.

Because of the use of a (and an or conjunction) it's only a single cow or goat that's being discussed. Given that, it's far more likely that there's only a single customer or farmer milking that single cow or goat.

It is the customer or farmer, because you've already introduced a single animal to the sentence; by extension, there will be a specific customer or farmer associated with that animal.

Note that I find the use of the customer, the farmer to be strange. They should both be the same person—so I'd expect only one or the other to be mentioned. Or it should be made clear that they aren't separate people: the customer (a farmer) and the animal. Or possibly the customer or farmer and the animal if there's a possibility that a customer is not a farmer.

In order for sentence 2 to work, you'd have to modify the first part to match the plural used in the second part:

Whether it’s cows or goats that produce the milk, we can provide suitable solutions that meet the requirements of customers, farmers and animals.

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