"neither would be..." ?

Question

Hello everyone! My name is Jessica and I'm an English tutor at my college. Part of my job involves proofreading students' papers for spelling and grammar. A paper I read earlier today included a sentence construction that baffled me. I hope to have it resolved here.

The sentence read:

"If the mother is not happy, neither would be the child." (The context refers to an expectant mother and her unborn child.)

I suggested the following:

"If the mother is not happy, the child will not be happy."

I still wonder, though, if a more concise construction is possible. I welcome any corrections or suggestions. Thanks!

Andrei · Accepted Answer

Here the word neither is an adverb and it connotes the words 'also not''.

Simply speaking when the child is not happy, parents are also not happy.

The would form sounds well to my ears; but I can't tell you why.

In this context, for me, the words neither and would go hand in hand; however, I don't know the reason.

Neither Portugal nor Holland will win the European championship.
In the above the word 'neither' is a conjunction.

Neither team feels comfortable.
In the above the word 'neither' is an adjective.

Neither of them playing good football.
In the above the word 'neither' is a pronoun.

Taiwandave · Answer

Hello, Jessica.

You correctly flagged this sentence as being incorrect:

1. If the mother is not happy, neither would be the child.

The problem with [1] is tense agreement on either side of the comma. The "if" clause is using the present simple, but the "neither" clause uses the past tense of the modal verb "will". It should be:

2. If the mother is not happy, neither will be the child.

Compare:

3. If he goes, I will stay home.
4. If he goes, I would stay home.

[4] is correct only if the speaker is giving advice to someone else (in other words, "If I were you, I would stay home if he goes"). In [2] and [3] the speaker is simply stating that if A is true, B is also true. Hence the use of "will", not "would".

The simplest way of making this point is, as you suggested:

5. If the mother is not happy, the child will not be happy.

Other variants:

6. An unhappy mother means an unhappy child.
7. If the mother is unhappy, so will be the child.

The most concise is [6] at only seven words.

Geekgirljess · Answer

Thanks, Andrei and taiwandave, for clearing this up for me. I particularly like [6] and [7]... why didn't I think of them?<img class='emoticon' style='Width:19px;Height:19px;' data-delaysrc='https://uat-englishforward-forums-backend.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/Emoticons/5.gif' src='https://uat-englishforward-forums-backend.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/Emoticons/5.gif' alt='Emotion: wink'/>

"neither would be..." ?

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