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When you'd like to say you did not take any action with A or B (No action was taken with A + No action was taken with B), which of the following is correct?

  1. No action was taken with A or B.
  2. No action was taken with A and B.

Thank you for your help.

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  1. is incontestably accurate and good.

  2. has (at least) two problems.

For the reader to get the intended meaning, they must realise that "with" distributes over "A" and "B" -- that "with A and B" means not "with the combination of A and B", but rather "with A, and likewise with B". Is the combination of A and B a plausible combination?

The reader must also realise that the phrase "with A and B" is outside the scope of the "not". Is "No action was taken" a term of art in the context? Does it, for example, mean that someone decided that nobody was to take any action in that matter?

How reasonable it would be to expect the reader to jump through those hoops depends on the context.

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