Found myself writing the following sentence in a blog about telescopes:
"Your choice of instruments depends on which celestial objects you want to observe."
Then got hung up on whether it should be "depends on" or "depends upon." Visited several of my favorite grammar websites, and about the only consensus was that they are equivalent in meaning, but the latter is considered somewhat more formal, so the choice should fit the style of the rest of the article or paragraph. Since the target reading level is grade 8-9, even though it is tech writing, I decided to go with "depends on."
Interested to get some feedback from members of this forum. Much appreciated.
"choice" seems singular to me so "depends" seems to be the correct verb form.
Emmett
Emmett said: "choice" seems singular to me so "depends" seems to be the correct verb form.
No arguments there. But my question was about "on" vs. "upon" and whether the choice was only a matter of style/formality, or if other considerations come into play.
A simple Google search  finds that  "depends upon" yields 10.1 million hits and "depends on" retrieves 141 million. "On" wins in usage 14-1. "Upon" just seems pretentious, as Robert seems to point out.