Lesson: Idioms

Comment on Idioms

Brent,
Can you please correct the sentence below? I found this in an article and am sure that the idiom 'not only but also' is incorrectly used.

Whether the president knew it or not, Russian mobsters and corrupt oligarchs not only used his properties to launder vast sums of money from extortion, drugs, gambling, racketeering but even as a base of operations for their criminal activities.

gmat-admin's picture

Yeesh, that's a tough one to correct.

How about: "...Russian mobsters and corrupt oligarchs not only used his properties to X, Y, and Z, but also used his properties as a base of operations for their criminal activities."

hi Brent,

could we use the word 'it' in this sentence?

"Russian mobsters and corrupt oligarchs not only used his properties to x,y and z, but also used it as a base of operations for their criminal activities?
gmat-admin's picture

If we want to replace HIS PROPERTIES (plural) with a pronoun, we must use the plural pronoun THEM, as in "...Russian mobsters and corrupt oligarchs not only used his properties to x,y and z, but also used THEM as a base of operations for their criminal activities"

Her name is Delores, not Mulva.....:)
gmat-admin's picture

Agreed :-)

Hi Brent!
The idiom list has an idiom "forbid A to B". Is "forbid A from doing B" or just "forbid A from B" also correct?
Thanks,
Aashay
gmat-admin's picture

"forbid A from doing B" and "forbid A from B" are not correct idioms.

That said, here some other valid uses of "forbid" in a sentence:
- The rules forbid smoking in the restroom.
- The contract forbids the union to strike.

Brent, hi
I am struggling with Verbal section of GMAT preparation. Could you please help me with them.
I am confused with idiom “so long as”, the right one is “as long as”

https://gmatclub.com/forum/the-supreme-court-has-ruled-that-public-universities-may-collect-20807.html
gmat-admin's picture

Question link: https://gmatclub.com/forum/the-supreme-court-has-ruled-that-public-unive...

I believe that “so long as” and “as long as” are equivalent in this case.

Hi Brent,

Is it correct to use "but rather" in a sentence? It feels like it sounds wrong.

"Although it covers the entire planet, Earth's crust is neither seamless nor stationary, but rather fragmented into mobile semirigid plates." as per OG2019, this is the correct sentence.

Thanks,
Kashaf
gmat-admin's picture

BUT RATHER is perfectly fine.
In that particular sentence, the format is NEITHER X NOR Y, BUT RATHER Z
There's also NOT X BUT RATHER Y

Cheers,
Brent

Office Hours

On December 20, 2023, Brent will stop offering office hours. 

Change Playback Speed

You have the option of watching the videos at various speeds (25% faster, 50% faster, etc). To change the playback speed, click the settings icon on the right side of the video status bar.

Have a question about this video?

Post your question in the Comment section below, and a GMAT expert will answer it as fast as humanly possible.

Free “Question of the Day” emails!