grammaticality - Single Preposition/descriptor for Multiple Subjects versus Multiple Ones


Could anybody please tell which one is correct?



The President is going to give speeches in Belgium, in the Netherlands, in Luxembourg and in France



versus



The President is going to give speeches in Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and France




Answer



Both are fine. The second is an example of a rhetorical device called "zeugma," in which one word applies to many in a set of parallel constructions. Here you have a set of countries that are all the objects in a prepositional phrase, but the preposition appears only once.


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