NDA (I) 2017 GAT Q21: I disliked him not so much for his meanness but for his

Q: What is the answer to NDA (I) 2017 GAT Q21?

A. Correct — A, as for. English pairs 'not so much' with 'as', never with 'but'. The finished sentence reads 'I disliked him not so much for his meanness as for his dishonesty', where 'as for' balances the earlier 'for his meanness' and shows that dishonesty was the stronger reason for the dislike.

NDA (I) 2017 General Ability Test · Question 21 of 149

Question text verified against the official NDA question paper.

I disliked him not so much for his meanness but for his dishonesty.

(a)as for
(b)but because
(c)but due to
(d)No improvement

Answer

Why

Correct — A, as for. English pairs 'not so much' with 'as', never with 'but'. The finished sentence reads 'I disliked him not so much for his meanness as for his dishonesty', where 'as for' balances the earlier 'for his meanness' and shows that dishonesty was the stronger reason for the dislike.

Why the others are wrong

(b)but because — 'Because' has to be followed by a clause with its own subject and verb, but what follows here is only the noun phrase 'his dishonesty', and it also breaks the fixed 'not so much ... as' pairing.
(c)but due to — 'Due to' works as an adjectival phrase after a form of 'be', so it cannot pick up the earlier 'disliked him ... for', and it leaves 'not so much' without its partner word.
(d)No improvement — The original 'but for' cannot complete 'not so much'; on its own 'but for' means 'except for', which would turn the sentence into nonsense.

Concept

A comparison item on the correlative pair 'not so much X as Y', which ranks two reasons rather than denying one of them.

Key facts

'Not so much A as B' means B is the truer or stronger of the two.
Other fixed pairs that must not be mixed are 'no sooner ... than', 'hardly ... when' and 'not only ... but also'.

Study next

Correlative conjunctionsComparison structures with 'as ... as'Parallel structure after paired conjunctions

Common traps

Replacing the second half of a correlative pair with 'but', which sounds natural in speech but breaks the pattern.

Asked as a sentence-improvement item where the underlined half of a correlative pair has been swapped for a plausible-sounding conjunction.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Practice

practice — not a real PYQ
Which option best improves the underlined part — She was not so much angry but hurt by the remark.
- (a)as
- (b)than
- (c)and
- (d)No improvement
Answer(a) as — 'not so much angry as hurt' completes the correlative pair.
practice — not a real PYQ
Which option best improves the underlined part — No sooner had he entered the hall when the bell rang.
- (a)then
- (b)than
- (c)that
- (d)No improvement
Answer(b) than — 'no sooner' always takes 'than', not 'when'.