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RonTargetTestPrep
Hi RonTargetTestPrep – thank you for this. I agree from a Boolean logic perspective: No (X or Y) is not the same as (No X or No Y) which is not the same as (No X) OR (Y) - all 3 structures are different .
In (A) -- the structure is No X or Y
I believe there could 3 interepretations for this
(interpretation 1) -- (No X) or (Y)
(Interpretation 2) -- No (X or Y)
(Interpretation 3) -- No X or (No) Y -- here, the "No" is part of the parallel root phase marker and thus the "No" applies to both the X marker and the Y marker.
Given the 3 plausible interpretations of the structure in (A) - No X or Y - as mentioned above --
I preferred the structure in (e), which is (No X) or (No Y)
The structure in (e) [(No X) or (No Y)] does not lead to double or triple interpretations, unlike the structure in (A)
Thoughts on why the structure of No X or Y [as seen in A] -- could NOT lead to double or triple interpretations ?
Hi GMATGuruNY ReedArnoldMPREP GMATNinjaTwo AjiteshArun AnthonyRitz GraceSCKao RonTargetTestPrep GMATNinja
Reading from many experts above - apparently, Subject verb cannot be used to eliminate (Which suprised me)
So with Subject - verb off the table - I could eliminate (B), (C), (D) using other ways.
Between (A) and (E) however - i preffered (E)
Reason -
(A) has a 'multiple interpretation' problem IMO
Specifically - In (A) -- the structure is No X or Y
I believe there could 3 interepretations for this structure (using the rules of parallelism)
(interpretation 1) -- (No X) or (Y)
(Interpretation 2) -- No (X or Y)
(Interpretation 3) -- No X or (No) Y -- here, the "No" is part of the parallel root phase marker and thus the "No" applies to both the X marker and the Y marker.
Given the 3 plausible interpretations laid out above re: the structure in (A) - No X or Y -
I preferred the structure in (e), which is (No X) or (No Y)
The structure in (e) [(No X) or (No Y)] does not lead to double or triple interpretations, unlike the structure in (A)
Thoughts on why the structure of No X or Y [as seen in A] -- could NOT lead to double or triple interpretations ?
Reading from many experts above - apparently, Subject verb cannot be used to eliminate (Which suprised me)
So with Subject - verb off the table - I could eliminate (B), (C), (D) using other ways.
Between (A) and (E) however - i preffered (E)
Reason -
(A) has a 'multiple interpretation' problem IMO
Specifically - In (A) -- the structure is No X or Y
I believe there could 3 interepretations for this structure (using the rules of parallelism)
(interpretation 1) -- (No X) or (Y)
(Interpretation 2) -- No (X or Y)
(Interpretation 3) -- No X or (No) Y -- here, the "No" is part of the parallel root phase marker and thus the "No" applies to both the X marker and the Y marker.
Given the 3 plausible interpretations laid out above re: the structure in (A) - No X or Y -
I preferred the structure in (e), which is (No X) or (No Y)
The structure in (e) [(No X) or (No Y)] does not lead to double or triple interpretations, unlike the structure in (A)
Thoughts on why the structure of No X or Y [as seen in A] -- could NOT lead to double or triple interpretations ?
GMAT 1: 760 Q49 V47
Posts: 521
jabhatta2
As Ron explained above: "There was no A or no B" implies that EITHER was missing, but not BOTH were missing. "There was no taco or no burger served at the restaurant" allows for either a taco or a burger (but not both) to be served. If neither was served, I should say "There were no tacos or burgers served."
As to your last question, it just seems somewhat idiomatic. "There was no (X) or (Y)" never means "There was (no X) or (Y)." You could argue there is a parallelism issue with that formulation. Parallelism must be logically parallel. "No x" is the absence of something, 'Y' is the presence of something. Those cannot be in logical parallel form.
_________________
REED ARNOLD
Manhattan Prep GMAT Instructor
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The PERFECT data sufficiency question:
On a three person bench, George sits in the middle of Alice and Darryl. If Alice is married, is an unmarried person sitting next to a married person?
Answer:
Manhattan Prep GMAT Instructor
Video: The 24 Things Every GMAT Studier Needs to Do
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The PERFECT data sufficiency question:
On a three person bench, George sits in the middle of Alice and Darryl. If Alice is married, is an unmarried person sitting next to a married person?
- 1). George is married.
2). Darryl is not married.
Answer:
ReedArnoldMPREP
Hi ReedArnoldMPREP - thank you for the response in the yellow. Just sticking with the structure - No X or Y.
You mention per the yellow, interpretation # 1 is not a legitimate interpretation because interpretation #1 is not logically parallel [I agree !]
What about interpretation # 3 though ? Is interpreation # 3 also not parallel in your view ?
I know in parallelism nouns and verbs can be a part of the root [hence the verbs or the nouns are applicable to the X marker and the Y marker]
Is "No", not something that can be part of the root phrase because "No" is an adjective and adjectives cannot be part of the root ?
GMAT 1: 760 Q49 V47
Posts: 521
jabhatta2
So this is going to get very abstract very quickly, in a way that is deeper than you'll need to get for the GMAT.
But a negation of 'or' actually leads to 'and.'
"There is no tea or coffee" is logically equivalent to "There is no tea and no coffee."
"There is no tea and coffee" (...that's probably not grammatically correct, one should probably say "There is not tea and coffee"... or "There are not tea and coffee"? IDK this sentence is weird) means "There is not tea or there is not coffee (or there is neither...)"
We're getting into predicate logic, here, at a deeper level than the GMAT requires.
I would just say with a negation at the onset of parallelism with 'or' or 'and' you don't distribute the negation to 'both,' it's negating the entire structure.
"No x or y" means "(not x) and (not y)"
"not x and y" means "(no x) or (no y) or (neither x nor y)"
"No x or no y" means "either (not x) or (not y) (but probably not 'neither x nor y'... though in the purest logic, the 'neither' case is also allowed here)."
"Not x but y" means "(No x) and y"
_________________
REED ARNOLD
Manhattan Prep GMAT Instructor
Video: The 24 Things Every GMAT Studier Needs to Do
How to Improve a GMAT Score
The Studying Verbal Starter Kit (...That's much more than a 'starter kit')
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The PERFECT data sufficiency question:
On a three person bench, George sits in the middle of Alice and Darryl. If Alice is married, is an unmarried person sitting next to a married person?
Answer:
Manhattan Prep GMAT Instructor
Video: The 24 Things Every GMAT Studier Needs to Do
How to Improve a GMAT Score
The Studying Verbal Starter Kit (...That's much more than a 'starter kit')
The Studying Quant Starter Kit (...That's much more than a 'starter kit')
The PERFECT data sufficiency question:
On a three person bench, George sits in the middle of Alice and Darryl. If Alice is married, is an unmarried person sitting next to a married person?
- 1). George is married.
2). Darryl is not married.
Answer:
Thank you so much ReedArnoldMPREP RonTargetTestPrep
The challenge is to understand when do the rules of parallelism apply and/or when does boolean logic apply
Let me explain
In a simple sentence like this
But if i understand, this sentence for some strange reason is okay.
Why - because for some reason, boolean logic takes over and we are supposed to assume, there is only one interepretation of this sentence.
I think its because of the presence of the "No" that somehow we are supposed to assume - boolean logic is in play whereas in the first sentence above -- boolean logic is NOT in play
OR
Perhaps, both my sentences are okay
Not sure
The challenge is to understand when do the rules of parallelism apply and/or when does boolean logic apply
Let me explain
In a simple sentence like this
Quote:
But if i understand, this sentence for some strange reason is okay.
Quote:
Why - because for some reason, boolean logic takes over and we are supposed to assume, there is only one interepretation of this sentence.
I think its because of the presence of the "No" that somehow we are supposed to assume - boolean logic is in play whereas in the first sentence above -- boolean logic is NOT in play
OR
Perhaps, both my sentences are okay
Not sure
GMAT 1: 760 Q49 V47
Posts: 521
jabhatta2
I'll be totally honest, I don't fully understand what we're even discussing anymore, and it doesn't seem like a particularly fruitful GMAT discussion. We're into hypotheticals whose connection to the real test are vague, exceedingly rare, and possibly non-existent.
"I drink Sweet tea or coffee" is a perfectly correct sentence and would mean "I drink: (sweet tea) and (coffee)." But this is because 'sweet tea' is a very well known drink.
So take something like "I like pretty castles and flowers." You're dancing around 'whether an adjective can be the main crux of a root phrase' and 'is 'no' an adjective and what does it describe when part of parallelism?'
To the first I'd say, "probably? but carefully and rarely and it's certainly not what I see often on the test." To the second I'd say 'no, negations like 'no,' 'never,' or 'none' (and words like 'every,' 'all,' or 'each') are inherently Boolean.
So "I like pretty castles and flowers," are the 'flowers' pretty? Or just the castle? I don't know--and I have a hard time thinking of an official question that tests something like this.
But "I prefer no castles or flowers" is clear, because 'no' is not an adjective like 'pretty.'
If I really, really wanted to say "I want (no x) or (y)," I think it would help to put the negative *second*, maybe? "On my cereal, I like to put in milk or no liquid." But this is not something I've seen very often.
_________________
REED ARNOLD
Manhattan Prep GMAT Instructor
Video: The 24 Things Every GMAT Studier Needs to Do
How to Improve a GMAT Score
The Studying Verbal Starter Kit (...That's much more than a 'starter kit')
The Studying Quant Starter Kit (...That's much more than a 'starter kit')
The PERFECT data sufficiency question:
On a three person bench, George sits in the middle of Alice and Darryl. If Alice is married, is an unmarried person sitting next to a married person?
Answer:
Manhattan Prep GMAT Instructor
Video: The 24 Things Every GMAT Studier Needs to Do
How to Improve a GMAT Score
The Studying Verbal Starter Kit (...That's much more than a 'starter kit')
The Studying Quant Starter Kit (...That's much more than a 'starter kit')
The PERFECT data sufficiency question:
On a three person bench, George sits in the middle of Alice and Darryl. If Alice is married, is an unmarried person sitting next to a married person?
- 1). George is married.
2). Darryl is not married.
Answer:
Posts: 18
EMPOWERgmatVerbal
Question:
Does this mean, because we are exemplifying with two sets of items/people, this structure - "There was no X or Y" is always wrong?
Does it always have to be There WERE no X or Y?
Before Colette, the female writers of France had been aristocrats, from Mme de Lafayette to Anne de Noailles; there were no Jane Austens or Brontë sisters, perhaps because there were almost no clergymen’s daughters.
(A) were no Jane Austens or
(B) were not Jane Austens or
(C) was not Jane Austen nor the
(D) was not a Jane Austen or the
(E) was no Jane Austen or no
female writers so the verb has to be were. from A and B the ans is A because of parallelism between no jane austens and no clergymens daughters and were no is idiomatically correct compared to were not.
(A) were no Jane Austens or
(B) were not Jane Austens or
(C) was not Jane Austen nor the
(D) was not a Jane Austen or the
(E) was no Jane Austen or no
female writers so the verb has to be were. from A and B the ans is A because of parallelism between no jane austens and no clergymens daughters and were no is idiomatically correct compared to were not.
GMAT Focus 1: 745 Q86 V90 DI85
Posts: 3,004
NehaKalani
No, it depends on the situation. It would be fine to say "There was no soap or hand sanitizer in the bathroom." Notice that both here and in the correct answer to the SC question, the two nouns are BOTH singular or BOTH plural, so we have a clear cue to use WAS (for two separate singulars) or WERE (for two separate plurals).
So what about a mix of singular and plural? Can we say "There was no soap or paper towels in the bathroom?" That strikes me as wrong, so I'd find a way to rewrite, but as Ron points out in the discussion above from October 2022, the GMAT isn't likely to test this kind of edge case, since there's no clear right way to do it.
_________________
Manhattan Prep Instructor from 2009-2025
Elite097
Joined: 20 Apr 2022
Last visit: 07 May 2026
Posts: 731
Location: India
Schools: Sloan '25 Columbia '27 Haas '27
GPA: 3.64
Schools: Sloan '25 Columbia '27 Haas '27
Posts: 731
ReedArnoldMPREP @ronpuruwel RonTargetTestPrep DmitryFarber so can you please confirm the final logic when we have an inverted structure like this one with a compound subject- do we not follow the proximity rule at all and instead rely on both being plurall or singular for the purpose of GMAT? So do we have to see based on both the subjects which verb to use or can we look at ay one?
GMAT 1: 760 Q49 V47
Posts: 521
Elite097
I don't think the GMAT ever asks questions about compound subjects when the subjects do not match. I might be wrong, but it is exceedingly rare.
_________________
REED ARNOLD
Manhattan Prep GMAT Instructor
Video: The 24 Things Every GMAT Studier Needs to Do
How to Improve a GMAT Score
The Studying Verbal Starter Kit (...That's much more than a 'starter kit')
The Studying Quant Starter Kit (...That's much more than a 'starter kit')
The PERFECT data sufficiency question:
On a three person bench, George sits in the middle of Alice and Darryl. If Alice is married, is an unmarried person sitting next to a married person?
Answer:
Manhattan Prep GMAT Instructor
Video: The 24 Things Every GMAT Studier Needs to Do
How to Improve a GMAT Score
The Studying Verbal Starter Kit (...That's much more than a 'starter kit')
The Studying Quant Starter Kit (...That's much more than a 'starter kit')
The PERFECT data sufficiency question:
On a three person bench, George sits in the middle of Alice and Darryl. If Alice is married, is an unmarried person sitting next to a married person?
- 1). George is married.
2). Darryl is not married.
Answer:
Posts: 90
Quote:
Hi ReedArnoldMPREP
In the above question,
had been is PAST PERFECT or SIMPLE PAST tense
If had been is PAST PERFECT tense then we need simple past tense to complete the time sequence. Is BEFORE Colette acting as the SIMPLE PAST tense ?
Regards
GMAT Focus 1: 745 Q86 V90 DI85
Posts: 3,004
Iwillget770
"Had been" always creates past perfect, and yes, the "before Colette" part serves as the past time marker. It's not a verb, so it's not in past tense. All we need is some past point or event for our past perfect action to precede.
_________________
"Had been" always creates past perfect, and yes, the "before Colette" part serves as the past time marker. It's not a verb, so it's not in past tense. All we need is some past point or event for our past perfect action to precede.
_________________
Manhattan Prep Instructor from 2009-2025
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