“I have two red apples and two green apples” is equivalent to “I have two red and two green apples.”
“I have one red apple and one green apple” is equivalent to “I have one red and one green apple.”
But let’s say I want to similarly abbreviate the phrase:
“I have two red apples and one green apple.”
Would it be:
(A) “I have two red and one green apples.”
or
(B) “I have two red and one green apple.”
Or do I have no choice but to say the word apple(s) twice?
“I have one green and two red apples” would be unobjectionable.
It’s always better to rearrange a sentence to avoid grammatical problems than to look for an “artificial” answer.
Or “I have three apples; one green and two red.”
I’m with **Tevildo **on this one. Grammatically, you are talking about a group of things, and therefore would use the plural (apples). But that looks terrible next to the singular second item of the pair, so you rearrange the sentence. This also works for this instance:
“I have two apples; one green and one red.”
I agree this looks and sounds better, but I disagree that you are talkign about a group of things that takes a plural. Did you object to his “I have one red and one green apple”? That is just as much a group of things.
But it is pointing out the individual components of said group, and in this case both components are singular. Since they are both being referred to individually in the same sentence, then one should use the singular. (“One red and one green apple.”)
I’m with the sentence restructuring in the OP example in question, though; “One green and two red apples” sounds much more proper because one of the two subjects in this sentence is plural.
There probably are circumstances under which rephrasing the sentence is awkward, so I think it’s helpful to find an aniswer. Unfortunately, the closest I can find is English’s proximity principle, which suggests that in a compound noun phrase joined by “or,” the verb should agree with the closest noun; if it’s joined by “and,” use a plural verb (unless the two nouns refer to the same thing, e.g., “My best friend and crack supplier visits me every Tuesday”). By analogy, I would suggest that this is an adjective phrase joined by “and,” and should have a plural noun.
Daniel
It is indeed, which is why I rephrased it in my post. As **LHoD **notes, the “and” puts the two items together, making them a group and resulting in the plural form.
It doesn’t sound funny in the way that “one green apples” does, but it’s still incorrect (in my opinion). To resolve it, I move the noun and its count to a different clause, followed by a clause that provides further information.
What’s interesting is that the answer to the OP is quite a bit different when considering spoken versus written usage. In spoken usage, “apples” is likely to be understood from context … and may not even need to be included: “I’ve got one green and two red.”
For written usage, Tevildo nailed it in one, AFAIC.