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ICSE Question Bank
2020Q5(c)(ii)Grammar
Short answerModerate1 mark
5(c)

Join the following sentences to make one complete sentence without using and, but or so.

Rohan does not like to play cricket. He does not like to play hockey either.

Topic: Synthesis — neither... nor

Previous-year question practice database

Answer

Exam answer

Rohan likes to play neither cricket nor hockey. (Also acceptable: Rohan does not like to play either cricket or hockey.)

Explanation

Two NEGATIVE statements about the same subject combine with NEITHER... NOR.

Watch what happens to the negative. The original says "does NOT like" twice; in the combined form the negation is carried entirely by "neither... nor", so "does not" DISAPPEARS — "Rohan LIKES to play neither cricket nor hockey". Writing "does not like neither" would be a double negative.

The alternative keeps the negative and uses "either... or" instead: "does not like to play EITHER cricket OR hockey". Both are correct; what is wrong is mixing them.

The four correlatives to learn as a set: both...and, either...or, neither...nor, not only...but also.

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