Grammatical usage of prepositions: before or after "not only ....but also...."

Question

Which one is more universal, before or after "not only...but also..."?

I saw a sentence in an article:

...masters were responsible not only for teaching their apprentices a trade but also for providing them some education...

But I thought omitting the second "for" would be fine:

...masters were responsible for not only teaching their apprentices a trade but also providing them some education...

I guess you need the other "for" in the second sentence! Also is it "some education"? — rohit raina, Commented Oct 16, 2015 at 6:42
If the gerund clauses were shorter, you could get away with it. But these clauses are too long to stretch the memory of one little preposition across; it needs a repeater to reach the second clause. — John Lawler, Commented Nov 15, 2015 at 15:07

TheLimeTrees · Accepted Answer · 2015-10-16 08:06:38Z

1

Both of those constructs are fine. They work fine in both instances as they both as examples of correct grammar.

Try looking at parallelism.

answered Oct 16, 2015 at 8:06

TheLimeTrees

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