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Is this comment that I made here grammatically correct?

In Latin, when a group of males and females is combined, the neutral plural form is not used, but rather the masculine is.

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Please include the comment in the question to prevent link rot. – Monica Cellio May 16 '12 at 16:25
Just copy the comment here and ask a more specific grammatical question? What exactly is your concern? Is it the ellipsis? – Mitch May 16 '12 at 16:27
The "but rather" construct is a little confusing to me. – Adam Mosheh May 16 '12 at 16:36
Do you mean, like, into one giant person? Or into a vat of stew? Or do you mean, "when a group of males and a group of females are combined...?" – D. Patrick May 16 '12 at 16:48

2 Answers

up vote 3 down vote accepted

In:

In Latin, when a group of males and females is combined, the neutral plural form is not used, but rather the masculine is.

'but rather' is perfectly fine and a good alternative to:

In Latin, when a group of males and females is combined, the neutral plural form is not used; rather the masculine is.

'Rather' is like 'instead'; using 'but' allows it in one conjoined sentence rather than a separate one.

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Thank you very much. – Adam Mosheh May 16 '12 at 19:30
up vote 2 down vote

Assuming you are referring to the clause "when a group of males and females is combined" then the answer is "Yes, it is correct." Because you are talking about a group (singular), the verb should be is. Were you to restate it: "when males and females is combined" it would, of course be wrong, and should be written: "when males and females are combined" because you are using a plural subject.

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