For the sake of grammar, is this phrasing correct:
Python is something that not all adults know, let alone do the children.
or
Python is something that not all adults know, let alone the children.
Can you indicate or provide the correct version?
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2 Answers
The precise rules of the let alone construction are specified in great detail in
Fillmore, Kay, and O'Connor's classic 1988 article
"Regularity and idiomaticity in grammatical constructions: the case of let alone"
Language, Vol. 64, No.3 (1988), pp 501-538
In particular, in this case, there should be no do in the let alone phrase. There is no fronting, negation, or inversion involved in this construction, and thus no need for Do-Support.
So the correct version is
- Python is something that not all adults know, let alone the children.
answered Oct 28, 2020 at 15:42
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It might be worth it to point out that "let alone" is much more a spoken than written idiom. In writing, I would use "much less"....– LambieCommented Oct 28, 2020 at 15:46
The usage is idiomatic rather than rigidly grammatical. do is not needed.
Let alone = used to emphasize that something is more impossible than another thing:
You couldn't trust her to look after your dog, let alone your child
means “You would not trust her to look after your dog; it is even less likely that you would let her look after your child.”
Cambridge dictionary uses impossible but your example is better understood as improbable. “Few adults know Python; is is even less probable that children know it.” (This is the meaning of the sentence, regardless of any discussion of its truth)
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Impossibility has degrees? Usage of this idiom is more general, for the informal negative expression of a fortiori reasoning. Commented Oct 28, 2020 at 11:26
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Indeed, I agree, that is exactly my point. I feel that Cambridge dictionary has failed to distinguish between impossible (probability = 0) and improbable (probability small but not zero)– AntonCommented Oct 28, 2020 at 12:49
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@BrianDonovan We often use “impossible” when we mean highly improbable or impractical, and in that sense it can have degrees. Or you could look at it as degrees of how obviously impossible something is.– StephenSCommented Oct 28, 2020 at 16:19
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@BrianDonovan To use impossible in your second sense - on occasion I would agree. To use in your first sense is loose and leaves the language with no word to describe that which cannot be, that which has zero possibility; we should not use it in that way.– AntonCommented Oct 28, 2020 at 17:12
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@Anton Hyperbole is part of the language. Your chances of stopping it are less than zero. It is beyond impossible. ;-)– StephenSCommented Oct 28, 2020 at 21:52