Brain freeze - 'and growing'

Gate12

Is it correct to say, "We have 5 employees, and growing." Does the sentence make sense, and should the comma be there?

I must be having a premature senior moment because I've read it ten times and that's knocked any sense out of it for me now! I could say something like, "We have 5 employees and continue to grow," but I'm short on space. Thanks a million in advance.

Edit - it's '5 employees and counting' duh

looksee

I'd prefer 'and growing' in that situation, but go with whichever you think. You will be inundated with cvs either way!

Gate12

Cheers. I’ll try both again and stare at them for too long, though either seems fine at this stage.

Chancer3001

And growing makes sense.

And counting doesn't.

And growing means you expect to grow your work force of 5.

And counting means you've counted 5 employees and there are still more to be counted. Unless they're very small people I doubt this is the case

New Home

How about "We currently have five employees, and are still hiring"?

hullaballoo

You're missing the "are" imo.

"We have 5 employees and are growing."

When you're being concise, it's ok to omit redundant words like the second "we" in the fully articulated sentence "we have 5 employees and we are growing" but because the verb ("have") following the first "we" is a different one to the one required by the second "we" ("are"), you need to use it.

If that's a bit abstract, you can use any verb combination. Take the fully articulated "I went to England and I had my holiday". The second "I" is redundant as in "I went to England and had my holiday" but the "had" is necessary for the sentence as otherwise:

"I went to England and my holiday"

New Home

The only difference in that would be that holiday is a noun, and growing is an incomplete verb.

my3cents

No one has mentioned the comma?

I don't think it should be there. The "and" joins two statements that could be made on their own,
"We have 5 employees."
"We are growing."
so the comma is redundant or am I wrong?

looksee

I'm not sure what would be strictly correct, but the comma looks ok to me. Would the sentence sound a bit 'breathless' without it?

my3cents

looksee wrote: »

I'm not sure what would be strictly correct, but the comma looks ok to me. Would the sentence sound a bit 'breathless' without it?

I see your point and but it seems I might have been right for the wrong reasons.

https://www.grammarly.com/blog/comma-before-and/

https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/30516/should-i-use-a-comma-before-and-or-or .

looksee

I would not argue at all that you are correct, I think you are. In that situation though I think the comma is needed to provide the 'drama', 'not only are we this, but we are this too'. I am open to correction, but I feel that it is not a proper sentence anyway, adding the comma makes it into a kind of slogan.

Yakuza

Chancer3001 wrote: »

And counting doesn't.

And counting means you've counted 5 employees and there are still more to be counted. Unless they're very small people I doubt this is the case

No, "and counting" is a perfectly fine way to say a number is increasing.

So "We have five employees (and counting)" would be fine.

https://www.macmillandictionary.com/dictionary/british/and-counting

Ragnar Lothbrok

looksee wrote: »

I would not argue at all that you are correct, I think you are. In that situation though I think the comma is needed to provide the 'drama', 'not only are we this, but we are this too'. I am open to correction, but I feel that it is not a proper sentence anyway, adding the comma makes it into a kind of slogan.

I think an em dash would make more sense in this case: We have five staff — and counting.

Personally, I'd prefer growing to counting.

looksee

Ragnar Lothbrok wrote: »

I think an em dash would make more sense in this case: We have five staff — and counting.

Personally, I'd prefer growing to counting.

As an ex typesetter/graphic designer I am a bit put out to say I never realised that's what that dash was called! (And having looked it up, there is an en dash too, which I did not know about).

tac foley

Remember to write numbers, and not to use numerals. That is 'five' not '5'.

tac