Join the following sentences to make one complete sentence without using and, but or so.
Mala is not in the classroom. Mala is not in the library.
Topic: Synthesis — neither... nor
Answer
Mala is neither in the classroom nor in the library.
Two NEGATIVE statements about the same subject combine with NEITHER... NOR.
Watch what happens to the negative. The original says "is NOT" twice; in the combined form the negation is carried entirely by "neither... nor", so "not" DISAPPEARS — "Mala IS neither in the classroom nor in the library". Writing "Mala is not neither..." would be a double negative.
PARALLELISM: both halves keep their preposition — "in the classroom" and "in the library". Keeping the two parts grammatically alike is part of what makes the construction correct.
The four correlatives to learn as a set: both...and, either...or, neither...nor, not only...but also. Note that question 4(a)(6) of this same paper tests the VERB AGREEMENT rule for neither... nor, so the paper examines the construction twice.