Omitting a verb from a second clause

Question

Consider these two sentences:

I rode my horse and you rode your bike.
I rode my horse and you your bike.

I'm trying to find the grammatical explanation for why the second sentence is acceptable, even though its second clause (you your bike) has no verb.
Thanks!

Andrew Leach · Answer

@BillJ commented...
It's called gapping (or 'gapped coordination'). This occurs when the middle part (usually inc. the verb) of a non-initial coordinate is omitted but recoverable from the corresponding part of the first coordinate, thus "I rode my horse and you __ your bike", where gap is understood as "rode".

Omitting a verb from a second clause

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