 According to Nicolas (2008), the sentence is true when a common non-singular covering can be chosen for the as and the bs.[23] This means that there are some small bits of clay, each of which has retained its identity over time. On July 1st, these bits of clay were so arranged that they made up the as (i.e., they were a covering of the as). On July 2nd, they were arranged differently, in such a way that they made up the bs. This doesn’t require the existence of minimal parts of clay. It only requires the existence of a common division of the as and the bs into certain bits of clay. (See Steen 2012, section 2.4, for metaphysical considerations concerning the non-singularist or pluralist approach.)