Questions about English usage
Uber is big in Cape Town and it has been driving the local taxi driver out of business.
Can I omit the "it" in the latter sentence:
" Uber is big in Cape Town and has been driving the local taxi driver out of business. "

Thank you.

Question

Questions about English usage
Uber is big in Cape Town and it has been driving the local taxi driver out of business.
Can I omit the "it" in the latter sentence: 
" Uber is big in Cape Town and has been driving the local taxi driver out of business. "

Thank you.

Answer

Yes you can and it would be correct.

Answer

Hi Joey, 
In fact, the second option without the pronoun is more natural — both verbs go well with the sentence’s subject and can be joined by “and” alone.

The correction I would make is to “the local taxi driver”.  The most straightforward phrasing is just the plural “the local taxi drivers”.  I understand wanting to refer to them in the abstract, but it sounds slightly odd to do that with the definite singular here.  “Local taxis”, “taxi companies”, “taxi drivers” — all are more natural phrases without the definite singular.

Answer

Thank you all!😄

Answer

Yes, you can.  In addition, you need to put an "s" at on driver since I'm sure there's more than one taxi driver in Cape Town!
:-)

Answer

Both are correct, but the second flows more naturally.

Answers · 5

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