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JJDouglas Posted 10 years ago
Grammar
"Not only...but also" parallelism
Firstly, I am unsure about an instance of using the "not only... but also" structure in my own writing.
"We can find you a policy that not only has been fitted to your every requirement but is reasonably priced, too."
Is this correct usage? I think the auxiliary verb "has" is confusing me. Because "has" appears after the "not only", does it have to appear after the "but" as well, or is the sentence fine as it is? Also, if I were to place the "has" before the "not only", would that be acceptable?
Secondly, I am confused about an example found at this link.
dictionary.cambridge.org/grammar/british-grammar/not-only-but-also
This page uses this as an example:
"Not only will they paint the outside of the house but also the inside."
Is this right? It's from the Cambridge Dictionary, so I would've thought it was a credible source. However, not only does this sound incorrect, but it also doesn't follow the rule of balancing the elements. As the subject comes after "not only", then there should be a subject after "but", shouldn't there?
If my understanding of the rule is correct, the above example should be reworded like this:
"Not only will they paint the outside of the house, but they'll also paint the inside."
"We can find you a policy that not only has been fitted to your every requirement but is reasonably priced, too."
Is this correct usage? I think the auxiliary verb "has" is confusing me. Because "has" appears after the "not only", does it have to appear after the "but" as well, or is the sentence fine as it is? Also, if I were to place the "has" before the "not only", would that be acceptable?
Secondly, I am confused about an example found at this link.
dictionary.cambridge.org/grammar/british-grammar/not-only-but-also
This page uses this as an example:
"Not only will they paint the outside of the house but also the inside."
Is this right? It's from the Cambridge Dictionary, so I would've thought it was a credible source. However, not only does this sound incorrect, but it also doesn't follow the rule of balancing the elements. As the subject comes after "not only", then there should be a subject after "but", shouldn't there?
If my understanding of the rule is correct, the above example should be reworded like this:
"Not only will they paint the outside of the house, but they'll also paint the inside."
Top answer
" Strictly speaking, in "X not only Y but (also) Z (too)", both "X Y" and "X Z" should read correctly. By this rule: "We can find you a policy that not only has been fitted to your every requirement but is reasonably priced, too" is correct "We can find you a policy that has not only been fitted to your every requirement but is reasonably priced, too" is non-parallel. However, detecting any mismatch in the second sentence requires very careful inspection.
- " Strictly speaking, in "X not only Y but (also) Z (too)", both "X Y" and "X Z" should read correctly.
- By this rule: "We can find you a policy that not only has been fitted to your every requirement but is reasonably priced, too" is correct "We can find you a policy that has not only been fitted to your every requirement but is reasonably priced, too" is non-parallel.
- However, detecting any mismatch in the second sentence requires very careful inspection.
- I believe that in practice many people would naturally write it that way, and that in normal reading pretty much everyone would read it without noticing any problem.
- " This seems more noticeably off to me.
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1 Answers
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JJDouglas"We can find you a policy that not only has been fitted to your every requirement but is reasonably priced, too."Strictly speaking, in "X not only Y but (also) Z (too)", both "X Y" and "X Z" should read correctly. By this rule:
"We can find you a policy that not only has been fitted to your every requirement but is reasonably priced,
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