3 ms·
Maybe I'm in the minority, but I actually prefer the use "is comprised of" over "comprises". For the supposedly correct version, you can almost always say it di
by captainmuon 3y ago
Maybe I'm in the minority, but I actually prefer the use "is comprised of" over "comprises". For the supposedly correct version, you can almost always say it differently:
E.g. simply: A proton contains three quarks. But if you want to use passive voice, there is no good other option. A proton is made of three quarks? Sounds too colloquial. ...is put together from...? No. I think "A proton is comprised of three quarks" is the cleanest way of saying what I want to say.
And yes, this was an actual example from my work and I discussed it through because I feel strongly about it :-)
- dheera 3y agoI believe technically speaking, "is composed of" is correct, "is comprised of" is not. Although "is comprised of" sounds more elite.
- crazygringo 3y agoYes, for whatever reason "is comprised of" feels like a natural, abeit rather technical/formal, expression. It reads clearly, something I'd expect to see in technical documentation or an encyclopedia article or non-fiction book. Whereas "comprises" feels halfway archaic when I read it, like it's the way an elderly British academic might speak, or something only used in legalese. Somebody using "comprises" in writing strikes me as a little odd, a little bit pretentious. I'm not saying whether any of this is right/wrong, it's just the connotations I've absorbed.
- joe__f 3y agoI usually see 'a proton is made up of three quarks'
- sebzim4500 3y agoI would object to the sentence "A proton is comprised of three quarks" on scientific grounds rather than grammatical ones. Only a tiny minority of the mass of the proton is in the three constituent quarks.