Proofreading Service - Pain in the English
Proofreading Service - Pain in the English

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Proofreading Service - Pain in the English
Proofreading Service - Pain in the English

Your Pain Is Our Pleasure

24-Hour Proofreading Service—We proofread your Google Docs or Microsoft Word files. We hate grammatical errors with a passion. Learn More

Evident/Evidenced

“The liquidity is high, as evident/evidenced from the Reserve Bank of India’s reverse repo auctions.”

Which one of these two words would be more appropriate here? How do we decide that ?

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Comments

First, evident is an adjective. Evidenced is a verb (well, a participle). Evident means clear, plain, understandable. Evidenced (or in the simple present tense, evidence as a verb) means to make something evident. So if A is evident because of B, then B evidences A.

That being said, you could probably go either way. Compare:

God created man.
Man was created by God.

or:

I ate the pizza.
The pizza was eaten by me.

All are correct, although in both cases, the second choice is in a more passive voice, something some say should be avoided.

I would suggest any of the following is correct:

"The liquidity is high, as [is] evident from the Reserve Bank of India's reverse repo auctions." (note the added "is")

"The liquidity is high, as evidenced [by] the Reserve Bank of India's reverse repo auctions." (note, "by" replaces "from")

"The Reserve Bank of India's reverse repo auctions evidences the high liquidity we are experiencing." (stronger than choice two by avoiding the passive voice)

porsche Nov-12-2008

10 votes   Permalink   Report Abuse

We can write "A is evident from B", or "A is evidenced by B". Porsche is correct in pointing out that it is a difference between using an adjective (evident) and a verb (evidenced).

However, the comparisons he made with "God created Man" vs. "Man was created by God", etc. are not related to the same issue. That is an issue regarding active vs. passive voice, and in both sentences the word "created" is a verb.

The verb "to be evidenced" is passive, as in the phrase "A is evidenced by B". Interestingly, however, there is no active equivalent for this verb ("B evidences A" is rarely, if ever, used).

judeec Apr-19-2009

6 votes   Permalink   Report Abuse

As I read it, "evident from" implies that the conclusion follows obviously and undeniably from the evidence that is mentioned, whereas "evidenced by" implies only that the facts mentioned provide some (not necessarily conclusive) evidence in support of the conclusion.

Nigel1 Dec-27-2008

5 votes   Permalink   Report Abuse

Oops, when I wrote "The Reserve Bank of India's reverse repo auctions evidences the high liquidity we are experiencing", clearly ...evidences... should have been ...evidence...

porsche Sep-27-2010

3 votes   Permalink   Report Abuse

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