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Is there a word or a phrase that could be used instead of the cringy "and/or" thing? It looks rather bad in an english paper and I can't come up with a short version of expressing it.

Ex: There was always a car and/or a motorcycle in the parking lot.

Thanks for all the answers in advance, Thomas

Tomáš Vlček
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    I believe that There was always a car or a motorcycle in the parking lot should be quite sufficient to indicate that the parking lot was never empty. – michael.hor257k Sep 27 '16 at 11:20
  • But I want to indicate not only that, but even that there might have been a car and a motorcycle in the lot. Your version of the sentence fails to emphasise that. – Tomáš Vlček Sep 27 '16 at 20:38
  • How far do you want to take this? Because there could also be two cars in the lot - and technically, a car and/or a motorcycle does not cover that. Unless you need to be very precise (e.g. for legal purposes), I would suggest you use ordinary language. – michael.hor257k Sep 27 '16 at 21:03
  • thanks, you are right... I will have to battle my laziness and write those few extra words. – Tomáš Vlček Nov 12 '16 at 11:48

1 Answers1

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I'd suggest that: There was always at least a car or a motorcycle in the parking lot.

Portmeirion
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    You might want to include references, otherwise it's more of a helpful comment but an answer. – Helmar Sep 27 '16 at 11:39