student asking question

In this case, "us" is duplicate in "see us or hear us". Then, can I skip it like "see or hear us"? Does it mean the same?

teacher

Native speaker’s answer

Rebecca

Yes, if you took out the duplicate of "us" in this case and changed the sentence to "see or hear us", this would have the exact same meaning and there is not really a difference between the two sentences. The only difference is that "us" is further emphasized in the original sentence when it is duplicated. However, you don't need to duplicate it since it is already implied if you were to take the first "us" out of the sentence. In general, you can do this in other cases where words are duplicated, because usually the word is already implied if you say it once. Here's another example of this where both sentences have the same meaning: Ex: I don't like soda or want to drink soda. Ex: I don't like or want to drink soda.

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