The sentence below shows age restriction for swimming:
The boys who are 16 years old are allowed to swim.
What if I write this sentence? Does it have the same meaning?
The boys who are allowed to swim are 16 years old.
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Sign up to join this communityThe sentence below shows age restriction for swimming:
The boys who are 16 years old are allowed to swim.
What if I write this sentence? Does it have the same meaning?
The boys who are allowed to swim are 16 years old.
Theboys who are 16 are allowed to swim.
means any boy who is 16 years old is allowed to swim. (maybe no other group), in this case you'd better drop the "the" to make it general (as it is in the comments)
The boys who are allowed to swim are 16.
means the boys who are allowed to swim (for any reason) are 16 (maybe by accident!)
The first sentence say who is allowed to swim and is more precise, while the second sentence can imply that you are describing an attribute of the people who get allowed to swim.
They are absolutely not the same.
First sentence
This means that 16-year-old boys may swim. It doesn't say whether OLDER boys may swim (nor wheher YOUNGER boys may swim, though the typical reader would assume they may not.) To clarify, you might want to say:
But there are two things wrong with this rephrasing:
1) do any girls get to swim? the original did not specify, but the rephrasing excludes them!
2) someone who is, say, 30 is older than 16 but is not a "boy". Will he be allowed to swim?
So, what to say? Maybe this:
Second sentence:
This means that all boys allowed into the [swimming place] will be 16 years old—no more; no less. No 8-year-olds, no 19-year olds, nothing but 16-year olds.
This is quite different from the default understanding of the first sentence (16 or older). Try this:
Technically, both sentences mean the same thing: the event of being 16 years old and the event of being allowed to swim happen at the same time.
However, think about what these phrases look like when re-worded to speak directly to one of those boys who is too young to swim:
When you're 16, you'll be allowed to swim.
vs.
When you're allowed to swim, you'll be 16.
Consider which information is more important, especially when told to a boy who is too young to swim. Such a person wants to know when they are allowed to swim, not when they will turn 16 (the latter being more easily determined by the event of their birthday).
Therefore the first form, which informs the boy of when they will be allowed to swim by using their 16th birthday as a point of reference, is the preferable sentence. The second form may provide the same information, but it's confusing because it's backwards with regards to the boy's interests.
On the other hand, consider an alternate scenario, e.g. in which a parent is visiting a summer camp to inspect it before sending their son to attend. The strict parent sees a group of rowdy boys swimming in a lake and is concerned that their son is too young to swim with them, and so asks the tour guide how old they are. The tour guide could reply:
"The boys who are allowed to swim are 16."
because the parent knows the boys are allowed to swim, but wants to know their age.
In short: both sentences mean the same thing, but one may be more appropriately worded than the other depending on the context.