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I'm trying to write a tagline for my live blogging service, and this is what I've come up with:

Live blogs that are a breeze to write, a pleasure to read and are actually updated in real-time.

Is that correct grammar or should it be

Live blogs that are a breeze to write, a pleasure to read and actually updated in real-time.

The completions 'a breeze to write' and 'a pleasure to read' both follow '... that are'. So why does 'are actually...' sound better to me? Doesn't that repeat the 'are'?

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Maybe it sounds better to you because a pleasure to read parallels the structure of a breeze to write, while actually updated in real-time doesn't, so you subconsciously think of it as being separate from the former two. It feels a little awkward to me too, but including the are makes the sentence ungrammatical -- unless you move the and too:

Live blogs that are a breeze to write and a pleasure to read, and are actually updated in real-time.

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  • You're right about the feeling coming from the disparity in structure. I'm just changing the entire line to something simpler, but it's good to know why it felt wrong.
    – Sudhir Jonathan
    Commented Mar 18, 2011 at 9:32
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I would say "live blogs that are a breeze to write, a pleasure to read, and actually updated in real-time," in the same way I would say "I have eaten, worked outside, and posted on a Q&A site all day."

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  • answered questions - you mean
    – mplungjan
    Commented Mar 18, 2011 at 9:10
  • Yeah... I'd say the same thing, which is why I think is second version is grammatically correct. I was wondering the first version sounded better in my head :D
    – Sudhir Jonathan
    Commented Mar 18, 2011 at 9:34
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Why you need words like "that are" and "actually"?. Your senetence can be simply - "Live blogs are breeze to write , a pleasure to read and are realtime, too". You cant use plural and singular to describe the same thing. And the second are will be there as it is joing two sentences.

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Perhaps

Live blogs that are a breeze to write and a pleasure to read

with the actually real-time update in the sub header

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  • I'm just re-writing it to something simpler, but I wanted to know why this sounded wrong to me...
    – Sudhir Jonathan
    Commented Mar 18, 2011 at 9:33

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