Not only A but also B

Question

Hi Everyone,I have a question regarding the parallelism with not only... but also...Here is the sentence."Not only is the machine used to produce the products, but it is also used to investigate the efficiency of other machines." I notice that "is used to" is written twice and I would like to find a way to make the sentence more succinct. However, parallelism requires me to also keep "is used to" for the sentence part of the sentence. Is there a way to fix this? Thank you very much Kenny

Anonymous · Accepted Answer

There is nothing wrong with repeating "is used to", I guess you realize. But I agree that it is a bit wordy. The solution is simple: "Not only is the machine used to produce the products but also to investigate the efficiency of other machines." We are accustomed to bridging a verb like that. Note that the comma disappeared because you no longer have two independent clauses, and you do have to repeat the infinitve particle "to" because that properly belongs to its own infinitive.

Anonymous · Answer

KennyLu

Hi Everyone,

I have a question regarding the parallelism with not only... but also...

Here is the sentence.

"Not only is the machine used to produce the products, but it is also used to investigate the efficiency of other machines."

I notice that "is used to" is written twice and I would like to find a way to make the sentence more succinct.

However, parallelism requires me to also keep "is used to" for the sentence part of the sentence. Is there a way to fix this?

Thank you very much

Kenny

Not only A but also B is the fixed syntax structure. If we opt to use it, then it must be used in whole. So as far as my understanding goes, it is "No". Of course, we can express it in a different way: " This machine can be used to do X as well as Y.

Not only A but also B

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