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Unread Jun 9th, 2016, 12:56 pm
susan53 susan53 is offline
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Default Re: to run out vs to run out of something

(4) doesn't make sense - "This pamphlet" is doesn't own/contain the copies, nor is it uncountable, which must be the case with any single object/person which serves as subject of "run out". Compare:

David ran out of petrol half way down the motorway (David "owned" the petrol)
The car ran out of petrol half way down the motorway (the car contained the petrol)
The petrol ran out half way down the motorway (uncountable)



You'd need to say :

We ran out of copies of this pamphlet after two days.
Copies of this pamphlet ran out after two days.




Similarly in (3) "this pamphlet" sounds as if it's a single document - not one with copies, so sounds odd. You'd need to say eg:
The first edition of this pamphlet ran out after two days.
or something similar. Here, although "The first edition" is grammatically singular, it is understood as meaning more than one copy, and not as a single object.
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