"But the most beautiful and fascinating thing about her IS neither her fatally attractive lips, nor her big dark eyes, nor her extremely high cheekbones. It is not her slender physique, too."
Is this correct? I'm not sure if I should use IS or ARE there and the last sentence sounds strange to me. How could I rephrase it to sound better?
Thank you in advance
2007-03-03 22:29:19 · 15 answers · asked by sagittarius 2 in Society & Culture ➔ Languages
"the most" implies one thing. therefore IS is the best.
as for the second sentence, you can't use the word too in a negative structure like this. "either" would be a better choice.
2007-03-03 22:32:40 · answer #1 · answered by why 2 · 2⤊ 0⤋
As long as 'the most beautiful and fascinating thing about her' is eventually identified as a single thing, 'is' is the correct word to use. If 'the most beautiful and fascinating thing about her' actually turns out to be a list of things, then they should be called 'things' to begin with and 'are' should be used with it.
As it is, I would swap the 'not' in the last sentence for the 'neither' in the first, drop the final 'too' entirely and amend the phrasing to accommodate these changes.
"But the most beautiful and fascinating thing about her is not her fatally attractive lips, nor her big dark eyes, nor her extremely high cheekbones. Neither is it her slender physique."
2007-03-07 12:30:36 · answer #2 · answered by Frog Five 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
"Is" is correct, as it refers to "thing", which is singular. However, your use of "neither" is incorrect, as "neither" can't be used with more than two options. The last sentence is incorrect because "too" in this case is a synonym for "also". You could replace with "Also, it is not her slender physique.", but I feel that "either" is more natural and better captures the spirit of what you are saying.
I would rephrase to:
But the most beautiful and fascinating thing about her is not her fatally attractive lips, nor her big dark eyes, nor her extremely high cheekbones. It is not her slender physique, either."
2007-03-04 06:36:37 · answer #3 · answered by answerator 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
For the most beautiful thing about her was not her fatally attractive lips, her big dark eyes, rare high cheekbones, nor her slender, toned, physique.
2007-03-04 06:35:38 · answer #4 · answered by Stormy 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
This sentence is becoming familiar....
"But the most beautiful and fascinating thing about her lies not in her provocative lips, her lustrous dark eyes, nor her high cheekbones or her alluringly slim figure."
If you are writing a work of fiction, the golden rule is: don't tell, show. You are working too hard drawing a physical picture of this person. You would be better advised to drop hints about these physical attributes in the narrative. If you list too many of these points together, they begin to tax the patience of the reader, who prefers to paint his own inner image of the character.
2007-03-04 06:48:31 · answer #5 · answered by Doethineb 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
IS is the correct word. You do have an error in your last sentence, it should read, "It is not her slender physique either", or you could say, "Neither is it her slender physique". <---I think this one fits the rythm of your narrative better.
You also need to leave out the word BUT because it should not start a sentence.
Hope this helps.
2007-03-04 06:45:10 · answer #6 · answered by nursesr4evr 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Because you said most beautiful thing and not things , "is" is fine, in the last sentence it should be "not her slender physique either". rest sounds fine, and i am not a native English speaker.but a native English speaker never learns the language with rules of grammar as it comes naturally to them. but i can tell you the rule of grammar that can explain it better because i had to learn it when i was young.
The rule was, " with he, she, it and everything singular you have to use is, with we, they, you and everything plural you use 'are', and with I you have to use 'am'"
2007-03-04 06:46:04 · answer #7 · answered by simpleplan 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The subject of the verb is "thing". This is singular so "is" is required. "the most beautiful and fascinating" is an adjectival phrase qualifying "thing".
It is not her slender physique either.
2007-03-04 06:36:23 · answer #8 · answered by tentofield 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Thing is singular, so it's correct to use is.
Replace "too" with "either". Or say, "Neither is it her slender physique."
2007-03-04 06:34:44 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Use 'is'.
And for the last sentence:
'It is not her slender physique either.'
or
'Nor is it her slender physique.'
2007-03-04 08:50:56 · answer #10 · answered by C 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋