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Inside their house, approval should NEITHER be given, EXCEPT in very special circumstances, for the ITEM A, or for ITEM B, NOR for ITEM C, or for ITEM D

Is the following accurate?

  • Approval should not be given to Item C, Item D
  • Approval should be given to Item A, Item B
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    The entire sentence is a syntactic nightmare. In particular, the parallel structure of of the neither-nor construction is wrong. It should be: neither be given nor something. But it doesn't follow that pattern. I suspect it should read something like this: In their house, approval should never be given (except in very special circumstances) for items A , B, C, or D.
    – Jason Bassford
    Commented Jun 10, 2019 at 5:20
  • Thanks @JasonBassford, much appreciate the reply! I was scratching my head over the "Except"
    – hspinmelbs
    Commented Jun 10, 2019 at 5:33
  • Avoid saying “the below X” because this can sound stilted and even borderline unnatural to native speakers. Instead say “the following X” in especially formal written contexts, or merely “this X” in the singular or “these Xes” in the plural in many common and less exacting circumstances. Sometimes English-language learners don’t realize that they should use the demonstrative determiners this, that, these, those which native speakers customarily use for these cases.
    – tchrist ♦
    Commented Jan 25, 2020 at 17:32

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Should read:

"Inside their house, approval should NEVER be given, EXCEPT in very special circumstances (for the ITEM A, ITEM B, ITEM C, or for ITEM D). "

or

"Inside their house, approval should NOT be given, EXCEPT in very special circumstances, for the ITEM A, for ITEM B, for ITEM C, or for ITEM D. "

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    I have a slightly different interpretation, which takes into account the use of "neither" and "nor", although the sentence is, even so, horribly unclear. I read it as "In their house ITEM A and ITEM B may be approved only under exceptional circumstances while ITEM C and ITEM D may never be approved under any circumstances." As I said, it's still horrible.
    – BoldBen
    Commented Jun 10, 2019 at 8:11

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