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I would like to warn my customers that names can be duplicate. How do I put it in words?

In MS Word when I entered Name can be duplicate., it draws a green line under duplicate. What's my mistake?

Suppose I have two products in my store with same name. I don’t want my customers to be confused when they see two different products with the same name. If I have to warn them with a written notice, how should I write that?

For now, I wrote it as “Multiple products with same name can exist at a time.” But I don’t understand why my initial statement was wrong.

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  • What do you mean, names can be duplicate?
    – user10893
    Commented Aug 2, 2012 at 0:39
  • Two people can have the same name? 'Please give both your given name and family name'? what are you getting at?
    – Mitch
    Commented Aug 2, 2012 at 0:42
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    Your mistake comes from using Microsoft instead of vi, obviously. I promise that if you upgrade, the green line will go away.
    – tchrist ♦
    Commented Aug 2, 2012 at 0:43
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    I think you are looking for "names are not unique". I think. Why MS Word puts a green line there, I can't possibly know. Perhaps it considers duplicate without an article an adjective, awaiting a noun to follow.
    – RegDwigнt
    Commented Aug 2, 2012 at 0:50
  • Updated the question. If its not name, it can be something else that can be duplicate. How would I form a statement with placeholder for that duplicate thing.
    – Alexander
    Commented Aug 2, 2012 at 0:51

3 Answers 3

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"Duplicate" can be a noun or a verb. So, for example, both "Name can be a duplicate," or "names can be duplicated," make sense.

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  • Name can be a duplicate seems right to Word.
    – Alexander
    Commented Aug 2, 2012 at 21:38
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You either mean to say, "Names can be duplicated" or "Duplicate names are a possibility" or "(Any of the) names may be a duplicate". Better still, as RegDwight said, "Names may not be unique."

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Clearly Microsoft Word does not know that duplicate is an adjective (as well as a verb and a noun). The OED says:

duplicate, adj.  1. Double, twofold, consisting of two corresponding parts; that is made or exists in two corresponding examples.  2. Double, doubled; consisting of twice the number or quantity.  3. That is the exact counterpart or ‘double’ of something already in existence.

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