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I noticed a sentence today in an article:

The index counts start from 1 instead of 0.

I'm not sure if this is a grammatically correct sentence and just want to confirm. As I remember, you can't use two verbs one after another. Here count and start are all verbs. So, is it correct? If not, what the correct way to express the same meaning?

BTW, the original article is talking about a programming structure array and how the indexing of it works.

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    I think the author intended counts to be a noun here.
    – Peter Shor
    Jan 19, 2019 at 20:38
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    Actually, "counts" is used as a noun here. "Index" is a noun-adjunct, that is, a noun acting as an adjective to describe what sort of counts are being talked about.
    – Hellion
    Jan 19, 2019 at 20:38
  • Can I say "the index counts starting from..." and use "count" as a verb?
    – Just a learner
    Jan 19, 2019 at 20:40
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    @OgrishMan: You can. And it means essentially the same thing.
    – Peter Shor
    Jan 19, 2019 at 20:50
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    Please provide more context, preferably link to the article in question. The word "counts" may be a name of a variable, or a plural noun, or it may be an grammatical sentence.
    – laugh salutes Monica C
    Jan 19, 2019 at 21:58

1 Answer 1

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As written, "index counts" is a noun phrase consisting of the noun counts, which is the same as counters (a thing used to indicate your position within an array), modified by the noun adjunct index. The noun adjunct is basically a noun being used as an adjective to describe what kind of counts they are: They are counts for indexes. So this really is not an example of using 2 verbs in a row.

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