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HaSmamit
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"But" vs "instead"? 03 Jan 2023, 10:41
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Hi, I'd love your help!
Doing some practice questions, I came across the following two sentences:
1. Robin Hood did not use quiet means of protesting; instead he used violent means, such as stealing money form the rich and giving it to the poor.
2. Robin Hood did not use quiet means of protesting, but violent means, such as stealing money form the rich and giving it to the poor.

I know that No. 1 is the correct answer, but is because of the use of the word "instead" rather than "but", or is it due to the presence of "he used"?

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"But" vs "instead"? 04 Jan 2023, 02:40
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It's more about the positioning of "but". Since quiet means is bring contrasted with violent means, a better construct would be:

Robin Hood did not use quiet means but violent means of protesting, such as stealing money form the rich and giving it to the poor.
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"But" vs "instead"? 04 Jan 2023, 12:17
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Hi, thank you for explaining it to me, I get it now! Feels like a subtle difference, hope I'll be able to catch those during the test.

EducationAisle
It's more about the positioning of "but". Since quiet means is bring contrasted with violent means, a better construct would be:

Robin Hood did not use quiet means but violent means of protesting, such as stealing money form the rich and giving it to the poor.
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"But" vs "instead"? 18 Jan 2023, 09:51
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HaSmamit
Hi, I'd love your help!
Doing some practice questions, I came across the following two sentences:
1. Robin Hood did not use quiet means of protesting; instead he used violent means, such as stealing money form the rich and giving it to the poor.
2. Robin Hood did not use quiet means of protesting, but violent means, such as stealing money form the rich and giving it to the poor.

I know that No. 1 is the correct answer, but is because of the use of the word "instead" rather than "but", or is it due to the presence of "he used"?
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So the word 'but' (and other conjunctions such as 'and' and 'or') have two jobs in a sentence. They either JOIN CLAUSES (subject-verb) or BUILD PARALLEL STRUCTURE (...this is not pure grammar I'm doing here, but 'GMAT grammar,' which is all I really know anyway).

If we look at the sentence you wrote with but up to the 'but':

"Robin Hood did not use quiet means of protesting, but _____________"

We need to consider what structures would come next. Well, it seems that 'but' could certainly be joining a NEW CLAUSE. In that case the word that comes next will likely be the SUBJECT of that clause.

"Robin Hood did not use quiet means of protesting, but violent means"

"Violent means" seems to be a new SUBJECT of a new CLAUSE. "Robin Hood did not use quiet means of protesting, but violent means were always a last resort."

Something like that.

You are intending it to be the actual subject of the verb 'use;' however, this structure does not work.

If the 'but' is building parallelism, we have a CLOSED MARKER system [not X but Y]. In this case, the X and the Y need to be same KIND OF WORD (either nouns, verbs, or modifiers).

"Robin Hood did not use quiet means of protesting, but _____________"

Since USE is a verb, the thing after 'but' should also be a VERB. (...this is a little bit unusual structure with the 'did not X but Y.' My instinct is that this should be 'did not X but did Y.' Other experts might chime in here).

"Robin Hood did not use quiet means of protesting, but did kill and rob those he thought deserving."

You could probably make this a "Robin Hood X but Y," also, in which the 'not' is actually NOT part of a closed marker system (somewhat confusing...)

"Robin Hood did not use quiet means of protesting, but killed and robbed those he thought deserving."

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