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His group members tried several recipes and prepared all the ingredients in order that they made delicious sandwiches.

Is this sentence idiomatic? I think 'in order that they "could make"' is better than they "made".

The past tense 'made' looks uncomfortable after the phrase 'in order that'.

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    Yes. "In order that" is about purpose, so you are looking ahead, not describing a past event. Personally I would simplify: they prepared all the ingredients to make the sandwiches. Sep 21 at 7:40
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    No, it isn't idiomatic. If you want to use in order, say in order to make. But since you are talking about testing recipes, you might say something like in order that the sandwiches should be especially delicious. Sep 21 at 8:19

1 Answer 1

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[1] His group members tried several recipes and prepared all the ingredients in order that they made delicious sandwiches.

Generally, "in order" is followed by either a finite that clause that contains a modal auxiliary verb, as in [2] or an infinitival clause, as in [3]

[2] ... prepared all the ingredients in order that they could make delicious sandwiches.

[3] ... prepared all the ingredients in order to make delicious sandwiches.

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