How To Use Not Only But Also (Explained: All You Need To Know)

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How should you use the phrase not only but also in business writing?

What’s essential to know?

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Let me explain to you what not only but also means once and for all!

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Not Only But Also Overview

“Not only…but also” is a phrase used to connect two words or phrases simultaneously.

Typically, you’ll use not only but also in the middle of a sentence as correlative conjunction.

A correlative conjunction is essentially used to connect one part of a sentence to another.

For example:

Here is another example:

The construction “not only…but also” is used to connect two words, two phrases, or two clauses, in the same position.

It can also be sued to list adjectives, nouns, and verbs, or show other complementary characteristics of the things being mentioned.

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When To Use Not Only But Also

You should use the not only but also when you have two things you want to discuss and you want to emphasize the second thing.

For instance, your goal is to present one thing and make the second thing surprising, impressive, shocking, or emphasize it more than the first thing.

What’s important though is that both parts of your speech must be parallel (meaning, there must be a notion of balance in your sentence).

For example:

• He is not only rude but also selfish 
• She is not only disorganized but also very effective 
• She is not only an engineer but also a musician 

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Not Only But Also Comma

When you are connecting complete sentences together using the not only but also, you should use a comma.

For example:

However, if you are connecting nouns, for instance, you should not use a comma.

For example:

Not Only But Also Synonyms

Here are a few synonyms you can use instead of the “not only…but also” formulation:

• Moreover
• Besides
• As well as 
• Similarly 
• Equally important 
• Furthermore 
• Not to mention
• In addition 
• What is more 
• Additionally 

Not Only But Also Examples

Let’s look at a few examples of business writings where the not only but also formulation is used:

• The president is not only intelligent but also highly experienced 
• When writing a business plan, you should not only consider the topic but also your audience 
• Not only does she enjoy giving presentations but also giving it in front of a large audience 
• Mary is not only a great businesswoman but also a great friend
• The company not only gave me a refund but also offered me a complimentary gift 

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• No later than

Takeaways 

So there you have it folks!

What is not only but also?

How to use not only, but also in a sentence?

In a nutshell, when you’re looking to use the “not only but also” in a sentence, you’re looking to make parallelism.

In other words, your sentence will have two parts where the first part starts with “not only” and the second part starts with “but also” (this is called correlative conjunction).

A correlative conjunction is used to relate two pieces of information.

The most important rule to remember is that using the not only but also is that the notion A and B must be parallel structures or the same part of the speech.

Now that you know what not only but also is and how it is used, good luck with your business writing.

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