The study concludes that many Americans do not have, or likely to have

Question

The study concludes that many Americans do not have,  or  likely to have, enough money put away to retire comfortably.

A) or
B) or are
C) nor
D) nor are not
E) nor are they

I am confused with the options as more than 1 choice look fine to me; experts please pitch in.

TheMechanic · Accepted Answer

I went ahead and Googled the concept of using nor without neither.

The following quote from grammar girl website clears the construction required for this:

“Nor” doesn’t necessarily have to appear in a sentence with the word “neither.” “Nor” can start a sentence. For example, if you’ve just mentioned that you don’t usually wake up at 6 a.m. and you want to continue being negative, you can start another sentence with “nor”: “Nor do I like to wake up at 5 a.m.” Another option is to combine the two negative ideas into one sentence and then start the second part with “nor”: “I don’t usually wake up at 6 a.m., nor do I like to wake up at 5 a.m.”

So it is the construction that's considered correct with the usage of nor in a sentence as is the case in this question. One just needs to be familiar with this I guess.

noyaljoseph · Answer

Here is my take on this:

1. The sentence states two negatives => eliminate or. ( A,B )
2. Parallelism : 
 c)  nor : usage not parallel : Americans have neither  money  nor  stocks  would have been correct. 
 d ) nor are not: incorrect meaning. Double negative. Either nor or not will suffice. 
 e ) nor are they: Correct parallel Structure. 'Americans do not have' and 'nor are they likely to have' are parallel. Hence the answer.

TheMechanic · Answer

I am struggling to understand why "Americans do not have  nor  like to have" is not parallel.

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Temurkhon · Answer

considered that "nor" can be used only in "neither....nor" construction.

Experts, please comment

Temurkhon · Answer

thanks, seems I have found the same source. Good luck

sayantanc2k · Answer

It is alright to omit the repeated parts (including verbs) from the second element of a parallel structure. However if the verb is not there in the first element of the structure, it cannot be omitted. Here the structure before omission is:

X NOR Y - X = Americans do not have, Y = they are likely
... Americans do not have  nor  they are likely ...

Note that the verbs are different in X AND Y ("have" in X and "are" in Y). Therefore the verb cannot be omitted from Y. Hence E is better than C.

StoicBread · Answer

The study concludes that many Americans do not have, or likely to have, enough money put away to retire comfortably.

A) or
B) or are
C) nor
D) nor are not
E) nor are they

The correct idiom is  Do not X... Nor Y

That narrows the answers down to C, D, and E

C --> does not have a pronoun that refers to   many Americans  
D -->   not   is redundant 
E -->  Perfect! No redundancy and fixes the problem of answer C

Sirakri · Answer

Hi  sayantanc2k ,

Can we ignore they in the second part?
X NOR Y - X = do not have, Y = are likely

Okay, got it.. because of fanboys + COMMA, we gotta use the subject again in new IC. Right?

sayantanc2k · Answer

No, the requirement is because of parallelism. For any parallel structure this concept is true. For any parallel structure, omission is allowed in the second element if the omitted part already occurs in the first element. In this case the verb "are" does not occur in the first element; hence it cannot be omitted.

Sirakri · Answer

Hi  sayantanc2k ,

Thanks for your reply.

I was asking about "they" in the second part. Is it mandatory that we use Americans (they) again?

BTW, just wanted to tell you that I'm a great fan of yours :D

StoicBread · Answer

I'll chime in if no one minds.

Using "Americans" after the comma is redundant and overly wordy (for a lack of a better term). As long as the pronoun is unambiguous, which it is in the sentence, you don't need to repeat the noun.

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sayantanc2k · Answer

Thank you.

"They" in the second element is not mandatory from parallelism aspect. However as you have correctly stated, "they" is required because  comma + conjunction  adds two independent clauses. The following would also be correct:

The study concludes that many Americans do not have nor ARE likely to have enough money put away to retire comfortably. (Two verbs are joined by a conjunction, hence no comma).

Sirakri · Answer

Hi StoicBread , Thanks for your input. This is the beauty of discussion boards, loads of help, wherever necessary

I was asking about the usage of "they" (which of course refers to the word Amercians.) Thanks for clarifying. Does that mean we should always use the necessary pronoun with the last item of the parallel list (of actions?)? Are there any exceptions?

StoicBread · Answer

Yes, that is what I was addressing. The pronoun "they" is appropriate because it unambiguously references Americans. If it did not, repeating the noun (Americans) would be correct. It seems as though SC comes down to ensuring pronouns are clear, modifiers correct, and sentence meaning opaque. There is a bit more to it, but once I learned to check for those three thing, and also parallelism, my hit rate went way up.

And yes! GMATClub is an amazing resource.

Sent from my iPhone using GMAT Club Forum mobile app

And yes! GMATClub is an amazing resource.

Sent from my iPhone using  GMAT Club Forum mobile app

abhishekmayank · Answer

I don't agree with OA. "Not.... nor" is not a right construct. Expert kindly enlighten...

The study concludes that many Americans do not have, or likely to have

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