AND

English as a Second Language English Teacher Explanations (ESL Tests)
1

Hello, I came across a sentence in an article.
“The work took thousands of workers and more than three years to complete.”
I think " and " doesn’t make sense here.
Should it have been " the work took thousands of workers more than three years to complete." ???

2

It’s just a badly written sentence.

Your alternative is better, but if the original writer intended to use ‘and’ he should have written something like:
The project involved thousands of workers and took more than three years to complete.

3

Thanks a lot for your reply…
Most colleagues of mine are convinced that the original sentence is correct and nothing wrong. but I still disagree.
So,we cannot say:
The work took thousands of workers to complete the project?
it should be “involved” instead.

4

Thanks

5

‘Involved’ doesn’t replace ‘took’.

‘Took’ is fine if you’d prefer:
It took thousands of workers to complete the project.