WAEC 2020 English Language · Question 39

That book is neither … — choose the word or group of words that best completes each of the following sentences

Question

From the words or group of words lettered A to D, choose the word or group of words that best completes each of the following sentences. That book is neither_________

A.his or yours
B.his not yours
C.his nor yours
D.his own nor yours

Answer: C. his nor yours

Explanation written with AI and checked against the answer key

Analyze the question

The sentence is "That book is neither __". It tests correlative conjunctions, specifically the pair neither... nor.

Explain the concept

Correlative conjunctions always come in fixed pairs:

either... or
neither... nor
both... and
not only... but also

After "neither", the second part must be introduced by "nor", not "or" or "not".

Step-by-step solution

A. his or yours: Wrong. "Neither" cannot pair with "or".
B. his not yours: Wrong. "Not" is not the partner of "neither".
C. his nor yours: Correct. "Neither his nor yours" uses the proper pair, and both parts (his / yours) are possessive pronouns, so the structure is balanced (parallel).
D. his own nor yours: Wrong. It uses "nor" correctly, but "his own" and "yours" are not parallel. "His own" is incomplete here, and the structure is unbalanced.

Answer: The completed sentence is "That book is neither his nor yours.

Exam tip

When you see "neither" in a sentence, look immediately for "nor" in the options. Also check that the two items after the pair are of the same type (here, both are possessive pronouns). This is called parallelism, and WASSCE and JAMB examiners love testing it.

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