Former and latter for groups [closed]
If I am comparing multiple things and grouping them, can I use former and latter?
Basic idea:
A, B, and C performed well, D and E did not. The difference is former has certain trait and the latter has another trait.
As your example stands, it's not immediately clear (although most people could deduce it) that former applies to A, B & C.
You can improve it by explicitly stating that it's a group, e.g.
A, B, and C performed well, D and E did not. The difference is that the former group has a certain trait and the latter has another trait.