In her presentation, the head of the Better Business Bureau emphasized

Is b wrong only because ‘an’ is missing before expense.

I suppose you are correct because an is inserted before investment. So an should be inserted before expense to maintain parallelism.

Hi sjuniv32,

The an issue is not really related to parallelism. We should instead take a call on the basis of whether the word we are looking at needs an an or not. For example:

... regard that sofa as not an investment but furniture...

Because we can't say a furniture, we leave the a out after but.

Hello Experts,
How a sentence is legitimate that discusses about a pronoun (i.e., her) without using the proper antecedent?
Thanks__

Correct Idiom: Not X but Y
Where X must be parallel to Y.

A-- Not (an expense) but (as) -- Not parallel
B-- Not (expense) but an investment -- Not parallel
C-- Not (an expense), rather -- Correct idiom is Not X, but rather Y
D-- Not (as an expense), but (as an expense) -- Parallel
E-- Not (in terms of expense), but (an investment) -- Not parallel

Hello Everyone!

This is a great example of a question that deals with idiomatic structures! Let's take a closer look to determine the correct answer - and do it quickly! To get started, here is the original question with the main differences highlighted in orange:

In her presentation, the head of the Better Business Bureau emphasized that companies should think of the cost of conventions and other similar gatherings as not an expense, but as an investment in networking that will pay dividends.

A) as not an expense, but as
B) as not expense, but
C) not an expense, rather
D) not as an expense, but as
E) not in terms of expense, but

It's clear from looking over the question quickly that we're dealing with an idiomatic structure that also uses parallel structure. The idiomatic structure we're dealing with here is:

not X, but Y

In this case, both X and Y must be written using parallel structure and wording. For example:

The autumn leaves were not a bright yellow, but were a deep golden hue. --> WRONG
The autumn leaves were not a bright yellow, but a deep golden hue. --> RIGHT

To check for idiomatic structure and parallelism, let's go ahead and add in the phrase "an investment" to the end of each one to fully round out the phrase. Once we've done that, it should be pretty clear which options don't follow the idiomatic structure:

A) as not an expense, but as an investment --> WRONG
(The verb "as" needs to be part of both phrases, or not at all. In this case, it's part of one half, but not the other, making in not parallel in format).

B) as not expense, but an investment --> WRONG
(The word "an" needs to be part of both phrases. In this case, the verb "an" is before the word "not," which means it isn't part of the idiomatic structure. This is another example of a non parallel structure.)

C) not an expense, rather an investment --> WRONG
(While this option DOES use parallel structure for the X and Y by saying "an expense" and "an investment," it's still wrong! It doesn't follow the basic idiomatic structure of "not X, but Y." It uses "not X, rather Y" instead, which is wrong.)

D) not as an expense, but as an investment --> CORRECT
(This uses the correct format of the idiomatic structure "not X, but Y." Both X and Y are written in the same format, with the phrase "as an" at the beginning of each one. Therefore, this is the CORRECT choice!)

E) not in terms of expense, but an investment --> WRONG
(Here is another case of the X and Y not being written using parallel structure. They both need to start with the phrase "in terms of" in them, or both need to start with "an" in them to be parallel.)

There you have it! Option D is the correct option because it's the only one that uses the idiomatic structure "not X, but Y" correctly!


Don't study for the GMAT. Train for it.

Can you please explain why B is not parallel?

expense and investment are same part of speech.

thanks a lot in advance.

... the head of the Better Business Bureau emphasized that companies should think of the cost of conventions and other similar gatherings not (1) as an expense, but (2) as an investment in networking that will pay dividends.

... the head of the BBB emphasized that companies should think of the cost of conventions and other similar gatherings as not (1) expense, but (2) an investment in networking that will pay dividends.

First, let's review the parallelism in the correct choice (D):


The two items in the list certainly LOOK parallel--both have the form, "as an [noun]". But to be sure, let's imagine what the sentence would look like if we only had one or the other:

1) "... companies should think of the cost of [X] as an expense."
2) "... companies should think of the cost of [X] as an investment in networking."

Grammatically, these are both fine. That's because both items in the parallel list ("as an expense" and "as an investment") can logically follow "cost of conventions and other similar gatherings".

Now let's check choice (B):


The first red flags is that the two items in the list do NOT have the same form: the first is a noun without an article (a/an/the), and the second is a noun with an article ("an"). But to be sure, let's do the same test with choice (D):

1) "... companies should think of the cost of [X] as expense."
2) "... companies should think of the cost of as [X] an investment in networking."

The second one is okay, but notice that the first option doesn't work because it's missing an article for "expense"! Choice (D) avoids that problem by putting an article ("an") in front of each item in the parallel list. That makes (D) a better choice.

And if you want a long-winded on special parallelism triggers (both/and, either/or, not/but), here it is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXRz0RBLNus.

I hope that helps!

In her presentation, the head of the Better Business Bureau emphasized that companies should think of the cost of conventions and other similar gatherings as not an expense, but as an investment in networking that will pay dividends.

A) as not an expense,but as
B) as not expense,but
C) not an expense,rather
D) not as an expense,but as
E) not in terms of expense,but

Correct Idiom: Not X but Y
Where X must be parallel to Y.

A-- Not (an expense) but (as) -- Not parallel
B-- Not (expense) but an investment -- Not parallel
C-- Not (an expense), rather -- Correct idiom is Not X, but rather Y
D-- Not (as an expense), but (as an expense) -- Parallel
E-- Not (in terms of expense), but (an investment) -- Not parallel

Hello experts,

Though i got this SC question correct, i could not eliminate option B.
IN option B as not expense ( noun ) but as( carried over) an investment ( noun ) seems parallel, so seems correct. please correct me if i am making any mistake.

Thanks.

VeritasKarishma, GMATNinja, @sayantanc2k,@ AndrewN, generis, AjiteshArun, @DmitrytFarber,@MagooshExpert, EducationAisle, GMATNinjaTwo