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As I was reading a book about Programming Languages, I saw a part that I thought the term "are" has been omitted from the sentence. Here is the whole text:

Our API

The API we are going to develop is a simple but useful one (well useful for me anyway!). With my ever-advancing years and worsening state of decrepitude, I wanted to write an API that would store “command-line snippets,” (e.g., dotnet new web -n ), as I’m finding it harder and harder to recall them when needed. In essence it’ll become a command-line repository that you can query should the need arise. Each “resource” will have the following attributes: • Howto: Description of what the prompt will do, for example, add a firewall exception, run unit tests, etc. • Platform: Application or platform domain, for example, Ubuntu Linux, Dot Net Core, etc. • Commandline: The actual command line snippet, for example, dotnet build.

Our API will follow the standard set of create, read, update, and delete (CRUD) operations common to most REST APIs, as described in the following table below.

I think that there was an "are" between the two bold terms "operations" and "common". Actually I described the whole last 3 lines as:

Our API will follow the standard set of create, read, update, and delete (CRUD) operations are common to most REST APIs, as described in the following table below.

And as you can see above, I added "are" between "operations" and "common". Now, did I add it correctly? If I don't, then how to translate last 3 lines??

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  • Prime Mover's answer is correct, but I will just point that you can't just add are because that looks like a second main verb. It's easier to see if you simplify the sentence: Our API will follow (the main verb) ...the set of operations are (?!) common...
    – stangdon
    Apr 22, 2022 at 14:21

1 Answer 1

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I believe it should be parsed as:

Our API will follow the standard set of create, read, update, and delete (CRUD) operations which are common to most REST APIs, as described in the following table below.

The thrust of this sentence is to mean:

  • Some operations are common to most REST APIs and some are not. (Some REST APIs may implement some more sophisticated and / or technically complex operations.) Be assured that our API will implement (at least) those common ones which every API needs to implement.
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  • So adding "that are common to ..." is correct too? Isn't that? Apr 22, 2022 at 5:59
  • @HosseinDara Either will do, I believe. I have never got my head round the difference between "that" and "which" in this context. There may be differences between American English and British English, for that matter. It is probable that nobody cares. Apr 22, 2022 at 21:00

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