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"Look at those tables, stacked one on top of another."

"Look at those tables, stacked one of top of the other."

"Look at those tables stacked on top of one another."

"Look at those tables stacked up."

Do all these sentences mean the same thing? Are all of them grammatically correct?

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    This question may be off-topic. You should tell us what you think about it and why. You have to tell us what you have done to solve this problem. See research effort. What specific grammar problem do you have here? Are you asking about the comma? the use of "on top" vs "of top"? the use of "another" vs "other"? the use of "one on/of top" vs "on top of one"? or the use of "stacked one" vs "stacked on" vs "stacked up"? I might be wrong, but this seems like a proof-reading question, which is off-topic.
    – AIQ
    Commented May 10, 2020 at 2:33

2 Answers 2

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The second Look at those tables, stacked one of top of the other is not grammatically correct.

The rest are fine, in terms of making sense, and they could well be written/spoken reasonably.

The first and third are equivalent in meaning. I don't think either is used a lot these days. They are fine, but maybe slightly heavy, perhaps because of their wordiness. They definitely require that the tables are stacked with other tables, not with something else.

The last is likely the most common. It is slightly different than first and third, but only slightly, because it might allow for the tables being stacked up with other non-table things. I don't think the possibility of using it that way would be very common either, but I can imagine using it that way. The first and third don't allow for that. You might even say in a stack or in a pile (if it's not necessarily neat).

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    I suspect that 2 was intended to read stacked one on top of the other, which is grammatical.
    – Colin Fine
    Commented May 10, 2020 at 23:14
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    Quite right, @ColinFine. If that is so, then it would make perfect sense, and is perfectly reasonable and not incorrect, as you say.
    – user114352
    Commented May 10, 2020 at 23:23
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Yes they are all gramatically correct, and they all mean roughly the same thing. There isn't much to choose between them, let's see:

"Look at those tables, stacked one on top of another."

To me this says "there are many tables, stacked up in an arbitrary fashion" - probably what you intended to say with this sentence!

"Look at those tables stacked on top of one another."

Means exactly the same as the above sentence. It's ever-so-slightly more poetic.

"Look at those tables, stacked one of top of the other."

The use of the here implies there are only 2 tables. Probably not what you meant, but if it was then it's valid.

"Look at those tables stacked up."

In this one the tables could be stacked up in any configuration, including possibly on their sides but not necessarily on top of each other. Using stacked up is more common in US english than British english I'd say.

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