I'm talking about the readable sentences. The one you labelled as "an awkward way to speak" was unambiguous. The phrasing it seems you preferred was ambiguous.

I'm talking about the readable sentences. The one you labelled as "an awkward way to speak" was unambiguous. The phrasing it seems you preferred was ambiguous. Personally, if I have to write the sentence down and the consumer of the sentence can't ask questions to clarify, I prefer the unambiguous wording. Ie, say exactly what you mean or you may not get what you want. > A wife asks her husband, a software engineer, “Could you please go shopping for me and buy one carton of milk, and if they have eggs, get 6!” A short time later the husband comes back with 6 cartons of milk. The wife asks him, “Why the hell did you buy 6 cartons of milk?” He replied, “They had eggs.”