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Starting from this date all such files will be stored in folder B.

Is it possible to re-phrase this sentence without changing its meaning in such a way that it would start from "Starting from this date the storing of all such files will ..."

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"Starting from this date the storing of all such files will ..." "...be in folder B." ?? Is that what you're looking for? It seems so simple that I wonder why you'd be asking for it. Do you just want confirmation that it is possible? The answers that don't use the gerund "storing" are attempting to make the whole sentence sound better rather than sticking to a forced context. – Mitch Mar 27 '11 at 14:22
@Mitch - "Starting from this date the storing of all such files will ..." "...be in folder B." ?? Is that what you're looking for?" - Well, I think storing, while being a process, cannot really take place in a folder, that's why I thought that there should be some other words added before in folder B like directed to or something. I think Martha did an excellent job in this regard (please see her answer below). – brilliant Mar 27 '11 at 14:33
To me, 'storing' does take place very naturally in a 'folder' in this context. – Mitch Mar 27 '11 at 14:44
@Mitch - Then I think I didn't understand the English word "storing" correctly. For some reason I was taking storing in the same way as firing - while I can fire a bullet at Jack, I can't say that the action of firing that bullet took place in Jack. – brilliant Mar 27 '11 at 15:01
Though it does involve the preposition 'in', 'Storing' is not particularly active here. Your intuition about 'firing' in English is correct. For 'storing' though, really, an item is not actually stored until it is 'in' its final location. – Mitch Mar 27 '11 at 15:10

4 Answers

up vote 2 down vote accepted

It is certainly possible.

"Starting from this date the storing of all such files will be in folder B."
"Starting from this date the storing of all such files will be relegated to folder B." "Starting from this date the storing of all such files will be specified for folder B."

However, all of these are awkward and less understandable than the original phrase. It changes the voice from active to passive, by making the verb "stored" into a gerund noun "storing". (Not it's not actually passive voice, but it's certainly a more passive phrasing.)

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Thank you for this, Martha. That's exactly what I wanted to find out - whether or not it was possible to express that thought in that way regardless of the awkwardness. – brilliant Mar 27 '11 at 21:01
up vote 2 down vote

I don't think it is possible without creating an ugly or ungrammatical sentence. The subject of the utterance is the storing, which must be modified by an adjectival phrase meaning will be performed using folder B for storage. Not easy to do without repeating oneself.

The original sentence is brief and precise. The only improvement I can see is that I personally would change Starting to As, and will be to are. Where there's no loss of clarity or accuracy, short words are always preferable - particularly in technical manuals & user guides.

I think this problem arises because logically the real subject of the utterance should be all such files, for which the attribute being specified is where they are stored. Introducing the storage (I don't like storing at all here) as an intermediate noun phrase simply makes the whole thing semantically and grammatically convoluted.

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up vote 1 down vote

IMO, a native English speaker would say "Beginning on [give the actual date, not "this date"], the system will store all such files in Folder B."

-- pete

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@Pete - You can replace Starting from this date with Beginning on [give the actual date], but, please, don't change anything else in the starting pattern that I have provided - it is important to me to see whether or not it is possible to express the same thought starting it that way. You have added the word system and have changed the meaning in doing so. In my sentence it is not clear whether the files are being stored by some system or it is done manually by humans. – brilliant Mar 27 '11 at 14:07
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Can you give some more context? Why is it so necessary to have exactly that beginning? Do you want it to remain unclear/ambiguous as to action by machine or human? And anyway all the assumptions of the situation don't lead to a change in meaning by adding 'the system'. – Mitch Mar 27 '11 at 14:19
@Mitch - I don't have any context. I am just curious if its possible to express the same thought while having the word storing as the main subject of the sentence (not files). – brilliant Mar 27 '11 at 14:27
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@brilliant: OK, then, yes, it's possible grammatically with no problem, just stylistically, I agree with the others that one would prefer not to be forced to use 'storing'. – Mitch Mar 27 '11 at 14:41
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@brilliant: If you add 'system' to the original sentence, it doesn't change the meaning for me, because whatever a person is doing, it is the system that implicitly allows the placement. Sure, if you said 'the programmer' or 'the secretary', that would certainly be much more specific than the original sentence. – Mitch Mar 27 '11 at 14:43
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up vote 1 down vote

Starting from this date all such files will be stored in folder B.

There is nothing wrong with this.

Beginning on this date all such files will be stored in folder B.

Nothing wrong with this one either.

Nevertheless, I would probably phrase the sentence this way:

As of this date all such files will be stored in folder B.

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Thanks, but this is not really what I am asking about in my question. – brilliant Mar 27 '11 at 14:12

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