"on a national and international scale"

[pie...@gmail.com]

Hello,

I need some advice on a phrase.

Would you say

"on a national and international scale"
"on a national and an international scales"
or a variation on one of them?

And would it change if I used "both" before national?

"on both national and international scale"
"on both a national and international scale"

Thanks.

[Cheryl]

I would say "on a national and on an international scale" or "on both a
national and on an international scale". I might leave out the second
"on", although I think it sounds more formal with it. I would not leave
out the "a" - I would not write or say "on both national and
international scale".

I would not be surprised to see or hear "on a national and international
scale". The meaning is clear, but I prefer the other way of expressing
the idea.

--
Cheryl

[Peter Moylan]

There is a way to make it shorter: on national and international scales.

--
Peter Moylan http://www.pmoylan.org
Newcastle, NSW, Australia

[pie...@gmail.com]

Le mercredi 6 juillet 2016 16:55:11 UTC+2, Peter Moylan a écrit :

> There is a way to make it shorter: on national and international scales.

That's the phrase my Cartesian mind spontaneously though of (there are two scales, one bigger than the other, so a plural should be used), but it seems to be rarely used.

In any case, Google shows many less occurrences for it than for the other forms I mentioned in my initial post.

[Don Phillipson]

<pie...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:7cd3df10-605d-4976...@googlegroups.com...

> Would you say
>
> "on a national and international scale"
> "on a national and an international scales"
> or a variation on one of them?

I should first hesitate because scale is in this
usage a metaphor and perhaps also a cliche: so
that it profitably prompts careful thought whether
it expresses best what we intend (and is not
merely a place-holder to allow us to get on
to the next and more important sentence.)
The question is not which of "scale" or "scales"
matches the repertoire of what people expect to
read or hear: it is just how well it fits the current
purpose, and whether another word might be
more precise or more powerful, familiar or not.
--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)

[Peter T. Daniels]

On Wednesday, July 6, 2016 at 10:05:43 AM UTC-4, Cheryl wrote:

> I would say "on a national and on an international scale" or "on both a
> national and on an international scale". I might leave out the second

Oy!!!

Parallelism!

"on both a n. and an i. scale" or "both on a n. and on an i. scale"

[pie...@gmail.com]

Thanks to all.

[Mark Brader]

Pierre H.:

> "on a national and international scale"
> "on a national and an international scales"

The plural "scales" is wrong. As to the article usage, I think
it's a matter of preference, and I prefer the second style here.

> And would it change if I used "both" before national?
>
> "on both national and international scale"
> "on both a national and international scale"

You changed the options from the first example. The new option with
no articles is also possible, but again, the one I prefer is with two
articles: "on both a national and an international scale".
--
Mark Brader "'A matter of opinion'[?] I have to say you are
Toronto right. There['s] your opinion, which is wrong,
m...@vex.net and mine, which is right." -- Gene Ward Smith

My text in this article is in the public domain.