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Here are two sentences:

  1. The training examples get labels 1 or 0 based on the tactics being useful or not for the proof state.
  2. We take the inspiration from the paper and implement an online version capable of incremental optimization.

My English teacher told me that for the first sentence, either "tactics being useful or not" or "tactics which are useful or not" is fine. However, "tactics useful or not" is awkward in her opinion.

For the second one, she said we could use "an online version capable of incremental optimization" instead of "an online version which is capable of incremental optimization".

Why in the first case, we cannot ignore "which is" or "being"? I cannot understand why after we removing "being", the sentence "The training examples get labels 1 or 0 based on the tactics useful or not for the proof state." sounds awkward? For me, "on the tactics useful or not" is just an abbreviation of "on the tactics which are useful or not". I think the meaning of "on the tactics useful or not" = "on the tactics which are useful or not" = "on the tactics being useful or not"

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  • Ideally it should be ....based on how useful the tactics are. At the same time, ...based on the tactics being useful" sounds OK grammatically. As for the 2nd sentence, both are used, "an online version (which is) capable of incremental optimization.
    – Ram Pillai
    May 18, 2021 at 10:00
  • It would be valid to say "based on the tactics, useful or not", although this would mean something different to "based on the tactics being useful or not": the former implies disregard of the tactics' utility, while in the latter it is their utility which you are concerned with. Meanwhile "based on the tactics which are useful or not" is ambiguous: it says your decision is something to do with the tactics, but it isn't clear if their utility comes into it.
    – Stuart F
    May 18, 2021 at 16:35
  • @StuartF < Meanwhile "based on the tactics which are useful or not" is ambiguous: it says your decision is something to do with the tactics, but it isn't clear if their utility comes into it.> I cannot get your point. Could you further explain it?
    – ZhangLiao
    May 19, 2021 at 17:26

1 Answer 1

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You can, in the first example, omit 'which is' or 'being'. You can say, "The training examples get labels 1 or 0 based on the tactics, useful or not, for the proof state."

The reason you can say this is because 'useful or not' is an adjective phrase modifying the noun 'tactics'. And adjectives can follow the nouns they modify. These are called postpositive adjectives.

Please consult the linked websites for further reference. Also note that in this case you would need to bracket the adjective phrase with a couple commas as I did.

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