7 students per class

Hello,
Is "per" in the sentence below interchangeable with "a"?

"To accelerate your learning there are never more than 7 students per (a) class."

Thank you

I guess; per sounds a lot better, though, and more formal.

Thanks a lot.

No problem 👁 Smile :)
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Hotmale said:

Hello,
Is "per" in the sentence below interchangeable with "a"?

"To accelerate your learning there are never more than 7 students per (a) class."

Thank you

I would agree with Kittycat that "per" is much better used in this sentence than "a". "Per" is most often used in statistical contexts (miles per gallon, feet per minute, etc.) and this is what your sentence is concerned with. If you prefer not to use "per", you might choose to say: "To accelerate your learning there are never more than seven students in a class".

Having said that, however, the whole sentence is actually grammatically incorrect... It should say:

"To accelerate your learning there should never be more than seven students in a class". You have a future condition (to accelerate your learning) together with a present condition (there are seven students)

As well, numerals from and including "one" to and including "ten" are always written out in letters. Anything from 11 and up is written in numerals.

Dimcl said:

Having said that, however, the whole sentence is actually grammatically incorrect... It should say:

"To accelerate your learning there should never be more than seven students in a class". You have a future condition (to accelerate your learning) together with a present condition (there are seven students)

Unfortunately, that changes the meaning of the sentence. The original is either making a firm promise or stating a fact. The corrected version is much weaker. If future tense is required, I'd stick with future tense: "To accelerate your learning, there will never be more than seven students in a class".

Although I don't necessarily see what's wrong with the original. It's a future condition that relies on a present fact. I'd honestly have to think about it.

"To ensure a difficult climb for our contestants, the mountain we've chosen is over 20000 feet tall." I don't see how to use "should be" there.

In writing I would always use per. In spoken discourse either one is fine, and I think they are equally common. Per is the more formal-sounding of the two, I think, but for really formal situations I would actually rephrase it as something like: seven students to a class or in a class.

Woofer said:

Unfortunately, that changes the meaning of the sentence. If future tense is required, I'd stick with future tense: "To accelerate your learning, there will never be more than seven students in a class"

You're right, Woofer - I was reading the sentence with a different meaning in mind. If this is a marketing/promotional context where a promise is being made about classroom conditions, it's fine. I was looking at it in this context:

"Optimally, to accelerate your learning, there...". I guess that's why we're always asking for context.👁 Smile :)

Thank you all very much!