Correcting Conjunction Errors - GMAT Verbal

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Question

Replace the underlined portion with the answer choice that results in a sentence that is clear, precise, and meets the requirements of standard written English. One of the answer choices reproduces the underlined portion as it is written in the sentence.

The remake of the film was neither enjoyable and definitely not faithful to the original film.

Answer

When "neither" is used in a sentence, "nor" should follow it, creating the structure "neither X nor Y," where X and Y are items formatted in the same manner. To correct the sentence, we need to change "and definitely not" to "nor." Several answer choices do this: "nor faithful to the original film," "nor were it faithful to the original film," and "nor was it faithful to the original film." "Nor were it faithful to the original film" and "nor was it faithful to the original film" might each look like potentially correct answers, but each introduces a verb that disrupts the parallel structure of "neither X nor Y," in which "nor" should be immediately followed by "faithful to the original film." The correct answer is thus "nor faithful to the original film," making the corrected sentence, "The remake of the film was neither enjoyable nor faithful to the original film."

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Question

Replace the underlined portion with the answer choice that results in a sentence that is clear, precise, and meets the requirements of standard written English.

In the future, not Ellen and not Marcia are allowed to go outside without asking the teacher for permission.

Answer

The correct form for this sentence is "neither . . . nor." In addition, "neither . . .nor" leads to use of the singular form "is"rather than "are_."_

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Question

Replace the underlined portion with the answer choice that results in a sentence that is clear, precise, and meets the requirements of standard written English. One of the answer choices repeats the underlined portion as it is written.

When she went to the zoo, Lyndsey got to see not only tigers, but polar bears, iguanas, and toucans.

Answer

In standard English, when you use the phrase "not only" in a sentence, it should be followed by the phrase "but also." So, the correct answer is "When she went to the zoo, Lyndsey got to see not only tigers, but also polar bears, iguanas, and toucans."

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Question

Replace the underlined portion with the answer choice that results in a sentence that is clear, precise, and meets the requirements of standard written English.

In Emily Brontë's novel Wuthering Heights, the heroine, Catherine, must choose between true love or social preeminence.

Answer

Only answer choice "the heroine, Catherine, must choose between true love and social preeminence" correctly uses "and" with the preposition "between."

The other answer choices, including the original text "the heroine, Catherine, must choose between true love or social preeminence," contain an incorrect idiomatic expression. When we have "between," we typically need the word "and"—rather than "or"—to separate the entities that follow.

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Question

Replace the underlined portion with the answer choice that results in a sentence that is clear, precise, and meets the requirements of standard written English.

Neither the economic theory of Adam Smith nor Karl Marx are adequate to describe the complexities of the modern economy.

Answer

When using "neither . . . nor" with singular nouns, the verb of the sentence must be conjugated to agree with a singular noun. Also, you must make sure that you are making "apples to apples" comparisons. Some of the answer choices compare the theory of Adam Smith to Karl Marx (the person), not to Karl Marx's theory, which would be the correct way to make the comparison.

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Question

Replace the underlined portion with the answer choice that results in a sentence that is clear, precise, and meets the requirements of standard written English.

The analysis both fascinated Amy and it showed her that there was another side to the story.

Answer

Correlative conjunctions must conserve the parallel structure of the items in the sentence. In this case, we need "fascinated" and "showed" to be conjugated in the same way. The latter cannot be treated as an independent clause (i.e., "it showed") when we use words like "both" because it would not make sense as a stand-alone sentence (i.e., "The analysis both fascinated Amy").

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Question

Replace the underlined portion with the answer choice that results in a sentence that is clear, precise, and meets the requirements of standard written English.

The remarkable thing about the new service was that it not only shortened wait times but also provides better service for customers.

Answer

The correlative conjunction phrase that is underlined in the sentence does not feature parallel verb forms, using the past tense "shortened" and the present tense "provides." Any correlative conjunction phrase needs to feature a parallel structure with each verb being in the same tense. The only answer choice which has the correct parallel structure is "not only shortens wait times but also provides better service for customers."

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Question

Replace the underlined portion with the answer choice that results in a sentence that is clear, precise, and meets the requirements of standard written English. One of the answer choices reproduces the underlined portion as it is written in the sentence.

After Jonas graduates from high school, his father hopes that Jonas will either attend college nor join the army to learn a skill.

Answer

Correlative conjunctions are used in specific pairs: "either" must be paired with "or" and "neither" must be paired with "nor" when you want to use them as correlative conjunctions. When using these correlative conjunctions, it is also important to remember to use parallel phrasing with each element that is being associated through the use of the conjunction.

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Question

Neither the ringing alarm clock or the crowing rooster were enough to rouse Old MacDonald from his slumber.

Which option best replaces the underlined portion of the sentence?

Answer

Neither always goes with nor, and either always goes with or. Neither neither nor either go with "and."

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Question

The two hour delay caused problems not only for Buckley, and Ronnie as well.

What option best replaces the underlined portion of the sentence?

Answer

"Not only" is a conjunction that always correlates with "but also;" furthermore, "but also" is sufficient, adding "as well" on top of that is needlessly repetitive.

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Question

Replace the underlined portion with the answer choice that results in a sentence that is clear, precise, and meets the requirements of standard written English.

Just as "he who sings, prays twice" cannot be properly attributed to Augustine, even if similar statements can be found in his sermons, so too is there no evidence that his mentor Ambrose is responsible for the saying "when in Rome, do as the Romans do."

Answer

"Just as . . . so too" is the proper form of the correlative conjunction in this instance, establishing the relationship (one of similarity) between the two examples mentioned in the passage.

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Question

Replace the underlined portion with the answer choice that results in a sentence that is clear, precise, and meets the requirements of standard written English. One of the answer choices reproduces the underlined portion as it is written in the sentence.

She told her children that she would take them to either the toy store or to the ice cream parlor if they finished all their chores on time.

Answer

The correlative conjunctions “either” and “or” get paired together here. In "either . . . or" sentences, the two options being discussed (in this case, going to the toy store and going to the ice cream parlor) must be presented in a grammatically parallel way so that the words following “either” and the words following “or” are parallel phrases. In this case, “to the toy store” and “to the ice cream parlor” are the only options that are parallel; otherwise, you’re comparing apples and oranges.

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Question

Replace the underlined portion with the answer choice that results in a sentence that is clear, precise, and meets the requirements of standard written English. One of the answer choices reproduces the underlined portion as it is written in the sentence.

The teacher reprimanded his class, saying that he was neither pleased with their poor work nor was he willing to accept their rowdy behavior.

Answer

The correlative conjunctions “neither” and “nor” belong together. In "neither . . . nor" sentences, the two options (“pleased with their poor work” and “willing to accept their rowdy behavior”) must be presented in a grammatically parallel way so that the words following “neither” and the words following “nor” are parallel phrases.

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Question

Replace the underlined portion with the answer choice that results in a sentence that is clear, precise, and meets the requirements of standard written English.

Neither the advisors' ominous projections or the board's grim outlook bothered the CEO enough to make her change her course.

Answer

The correct correlative conjunction pair here is "neither/nor." No comma is needed. The other pairings listed are either mismatched or inappropriate. The correct correlative conjunction for "either" is "or."

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Question

Replace the underlined portion with the answer choice that is clear, precise, and meets the requirements of standard written English.

The professor allowed her class to choose the assignment style for the semester: either several small quizzes and one large final exam and one large midterm exam and one large final exam.

Answer

Although the constituents in the list are a bit convoluted, this can be boiled down to a simple either A or B. A and B each have an "and," which can make the sentence seem more confusing, but, when simplified, it can be easier to tell that the sentence is describing a choice BETWEEN two options (both of which include two items and an "and"), so the "and" between "quizzes" and "one" needs to be replaced with "or."

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Question

Replace the underlined portion with the answer choice that results in a sentence that is clear, precise, and meets the requirements of standard written English.

The temperature dropped suddenly in the chamber, which will mean that the pipes passing through the manifold will be frozen by the chill.

Answer

The word “which_”_ does not have an antecedent noun, and so the construction is incorrect in the two answer choices in which it is present. Similarly, in the sentence implementing “this,” there is no noun to which it refers. The final incorrect answer leaves the modifier “passing through the manifold” dangling too far from the noun to which the modifier refers.

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Question

Replace the underlined portion with the answer choice that results in a sentence that is clear, precise, and meets the requirements of standard written English.

Neither of my colleagues or our professor could answer the question I raised, which I found quite disconcerting.

Answer

The central issue here is the proper implementation of the correlative conjunction "neither...nor." The use of the preposition "of" and the conjunctions "or," "and," etc., appropriately resolve the issue. If anything, these other modifications result in unidiomatic phrases or awkward syntax.

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Question

Replace the underlined portion with the answer choice that results in a sentence that is clear, precise, and meets the requirements of standard written English. One of the answer choices reproduces the underlined portion as it is written in the sentence.

The last time it snowed, that was in February, my dad lost control of his car and hit a tree.

Answer

This is a case in which we need to decide whether to use the word "which" or "that" to introduce the clause set apart from the rest of the sentence by commas. "That" is used to introduce information absolutely necessary to the sentence's meaning, whereas "which" is used to introduce information that would not change the sentence's meaning if it were removed from the sentence. Information that is not crucial to the sentence's meaning is usually set apart by commas.

In this case, the sentence "The last time it snowed, my dad lost control of his car and hit a tree" still makes sense, so we know that the information included between the commas isn't absolutely necessary to the sentence's meaning. Plus, the information in question is being set apart from the rest of the sentence by commas. So, we should use "which," and not "that."

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Question

Replace the underlined portion with the answer choice that results in a sentence that is clear, precise, and meets the requirements of standard written English.

The weather forecast predicted snow for today, and it is raining.

Answer

Because the second independent clause contradicts the first in this compound sentence it is more correct to separate the two with the conjunction "but," not "and."

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Question

Replace the underlined portion with the answer choice that results in a sentence that is clear, precise, and meets the requirements of standard written English.

He was never very happy during his school days, and his post-graduation depression was a completely different kind of problem.

Answer

The construction of this sentence makes it clear that the two parts of this compound sentence are contrasted with one another. This makes the use of the conjunction "and" to join the two a mistake, as the conjunction "but" is used to draw a sharp contrast between the two parts. As the only answer choice to use the correct conjunction, "his school days, but his post-graduation depression" is the correct answer choice.

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