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The sheepdog did not allow the tigers to lay their paw on sheep and tied them in a daisy chain.

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    I would not only like to meet that sheepdog but also to offer it a job.
    – oerkelens
    Feb 21, 2014 at 12:33
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    This question appears to be off-topic because it is asking for writing advice.
    – Jim
    Mar 2, 2014 at 17:29

4 Answers 4

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My attempt at rewording the sentence a bit:

"Not only did the sheepdog stop the tigers from laying their paws on the sheep; it (or he/she if we know the gender) also tied them [I would repeat the object- the tigers - to avoid ambiguity. ...eg. also tied those sheep...) in a daisy chain"

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    First off, welcome to english.se. Thanks for adding an answer. I think if you review your answer, you'll notice it's nearly impossible to follow. You should look at the formatting tools and the preview of how your answer will look to make it clearer.
    – virmaior
    Mar 2, 2014 at 12:40
  • I'd use keep rather than stop: "Not only did the sheepdog keep the tigers from laying their paws on the sheep, but it also tied them in a daisy chain." To me, keep is better than stop because the sheepdog presumably kept the tigers away for an extended period.
    – Peter Shor
    Mar 2, 2014 at 13:32
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You mean

The sheepdog did not only not allow the tigers to lay their paws on sheep, but also tied them in a daisy chain.

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  • You changed the meaning or forgot a word... "The sheepdog did not only not allow the tigers..." or maybe "The sheepdog did not only disallow the tigers..."
    – oerkelens
    Feb 21, 2014 at 10:15
  • Yup. Missed the meaning. Very strange sentence to begin with
    – mplungjan
    Feb 21, 2014 at 10:34
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    I think did not only not is unbelievably clunky, and using italics for the second not doesn't really save it. Better by far would be "Not only did the sheepdog not allow the tigers...". In such an obscure and verbose juxtaposition, I would also prefer to bin but completely, replace the comma with a semicolon, and follow it by a pronoun he/she/it.
    – FumbleFingers
    Feb 21, 2014 at 16:52
  • I do not see me being able to start with "Not only" in combination with ", but also"
    – mplungjan
    Feb 21, 2014 at 17:06
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The sheepdog not only didn't allow the tigers to lay their paws on sheep, but also tied them in a daisy chain.

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  • Exactly what I'd go for. Clean flow and removes ambiguity.
    – Carl Witthoft
    Feb 21, 2014 at 12:56
  • Don't use no double negatives. It's confusing.
    – Peter Shor
    Mar 2, 2014 at 13:30
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    It's not really a double negative. Replacing the two negatives with a positive renders the sentence nonsensical. The sheepdog only allowed the tigers to lay their paws on sheep, but also tied them in a daisy chain.
    – tobyink
    Mar 2, 2014 at 14:46
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It's difficult to figure out the exact way to structure it without knowing exactly what the sentence means or is to mean.

The sheepdog did not only not allow the tigers to lay their paw on sheep, but also tied them in a daisy chain.

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4
  • See my comment on the other answer :) Missing a not there :)
    – oerkelens
    Feb 21, 2014 at 11:55
  • It's hard to know if that is the case. What does the sentence even mean? :)
    – Ronan
    Feb 21, 2014 at 11:58
  • The whole phrase I don't know, really. But the part "The sheepdog did not allow the tigers to lay their paw on sheep" seems unambiguously mean the the tigers were not allowed to touch the sheep, and your version explicitly states they are allowed to do so. The second part of the sentence surely does not change the meaning like that :)
    – oerkelens
    Feb 21, 2014 at 12:00
  • Ah yes, very true. I'd imagine the tigers weren't allowed to touch the sheep at all! :) The double negative "did not only not" is very bad phrasing though. S/he'd be better of rewording the whole thing.
    – Ronan
    Feb 21, 2014 at 12:02

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