I am having trouble understanding the answer explanation for #39 (p. 96 of the OG). In the first paragraph of the answer explanation, the second sentence says: "When more is used in the comparative form of an adjective (more difficult) or adverb (more likely), it is followed by than." I don't really understand this sentence, as more difficult or more likely seem to be sufficient without than. Is this statement trying to explain that in the context of #39, you will need to use the idiom more than likely?

Also, in the explanations for answer choices D and E, can you explain the relationship between commas and main and subordinate clauses? Is there a rule saying how many main or subordinate clauses can be in a sentence and any rules about how commas should or should not be used in between? I didn't really understand why the comma had to be omitted. Please explain. Thanks!

Please copy the question into your post.

The reason why I didn't type the question is because the questions I had were on the answer explanations and they're pretty long to type out, but here are the question and answer explanation together:

According to scholars, the earliest writing was probably not a direct rendering of speech, but was more likely to begin as a separate and distinct symbolic system of communication, and only later merged with spoken language.
(A) was more likely to begin as
(B) more than likely began as
(C) more than likely beginning from
(D) it was more than likely begun from
(E) it was more likely that it began

Idiom + Verb form
This sentence is a comparison in which probably not x is balanced by but more than likely y. When more is used in the comparative form of an adjective (more difficult) or adverb (more likely), it is followed by than. The words used to show the comparison between x and y, but more than likely, must also introduce the correct verb form, allowing y to fit grammatically into the rest of the sentence. The subject of the sentence has three verbs, all of which should be parallel: the earliest writing was...began...merged. Was...to begin is not parallel and results in a construction that is not grammatically correct.

A In this context, more likely is not a complete idiomatic expression; was...to begin is not parallel to was and merged.

B Correct. In this sentence, more than likely is the correct comparative construction, the simple past tense began, parallel to was and merged, fits grammatically into the sentence.

C Subject should be followed by three verbs; beginning from is not a verb.

D Use of the pronoun it makes this construction a main cluase, in which case the comma after communication must be omitted and began must be used to be parallel to merged; was...begun is not he correct tense.

E In this awkward, unclear, and wordy construction, the first it must be followed by is, not was, because the theory is current; the second it acts as the subject of the subordinate clause, and this usage requires the omission of the comma after communication.

The correct answer is B.

I understand the explanation that "more than" is the proper idiomatic construction when "more" is used as an adjective to make a direct comparison (i.e. More X than Y). However, in this particular instance, I agree that the sentence is arguably grammatical in the absense of "than"; thus, additional errors are built into the alternative answer choices to eliminate any potential disagreement over the correct answer.

As for the commas, the GMAT Sentence Correction is not a test of punctuation and thus an answer choice will not rely solely on the inclusion or omission of commas. Broadly, the explanation is simply saying that a comma is necessary between a main and subordinate clause but unnecessary between two main clauses.

-dan

Hi Instructors,

I have read in some GMAT materials that, in GMAT land, the word "likely" can only function as an adjective and not as an adverb. Therefore, I chose A.
However, if I take the answer to this problem into account, that conception I've read seems to be wrong, because in choice B, "likely" clearly takes a stand as an adverb modifying the verb "began". Can you help clarify?

"Likely" can be used as either an adjective or an adverb:
Adjective: The most likely effects of the law are . . .
Adverb: He is more likely to attend the party now that his friend is also attending.

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Jamie Nelson
ManhattanGMAT Instructor

Hi Instructors,

I am having trouble understanding option B (correct answer) as from parallelism perspective.

Not a direct rendering on speech, but more than likely began as

a direct rendering of speech -> complex gerund
began -> verb

How are they both parallel in the NOT..BUT construct?

Many thanks!
DS

"was" and "began" are the parallel words..

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Tim Sanders
Manhattan GMAT Instructor

Tim,

According to scholars, the earliest writing was probably not a direct rendering of speech, but more than likely began as a separate and distinct symbolic system of communication, and only later merged with spoken language.

i'm a bit confused by this idiom/parallel marker. I see the "not x, but y" and x and y are not parallel

instead i see

x probably not, but more than likely y

where x and y are parallel. is this an exception to the "not... but" case?

Anytime there are multiple ways to interpret an example of parallelism, you should see if any of them are valid. In this case, my interpretation made for a valid sentence, and yours did not. Because there is a valid interpretation, you cannot eliminate this one based on parallelism. Check your parallel structures by the way; you'll find that "not x but y" rarely if ever shows up as correct on the GMAT. As a general rule, you should ignore adverbs when analyzing parallelism, and when you get rid of adverbs my approach boils down to "x, but y", which is totally okay..

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Tim Sanders
Manhattan GMAT Instructor

thanks Tim, I see it now.

"x, but y" is not in the guide, so would the takeaway message be, instead of learning all these static parallel constructions just look for meaning in the parallelism?

i guess what i'm really asking is, when you analyzed the problem, were you aware of "x, but y"? or did all the other flawed answer choices lead you to find another interpretation of this answer choice?

i do not look for static patterns OR meaning when i first look at parallelism problems. i look at what shows up to the right of the parallel marker and identify what kind of word it is (overlooking adjectives and adverbs). then i look to the left of the parallel marker to see if something matches - and here i'm only looking for a match in terms of what part of speech it is. if i cannot find a match, i don't have to look for meaning obviously. if i find that the words match up i then look at meaning, just to make sure the parallelism doesn't sound absurd..

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Tim Sanders
Manhattan GMAT Instructor

Tim, that was really really helpful. I think if I approach a problem that way I'm less likely to get drawn into other stuff. And in using that approach, i still got a bit confused by answer choice A

According to scholars, the earliest writing was probably not a direct rendering of speech, but was more likely to begin as a separate and distinct symbolic system of communication, and only later merged with spoken language.

a quick glance you see "was, was, merged"

then looking further you see

"was + object"
"was + infinitive"
"merged + preposition + object"

i'm a bit confused on the OG's reason for it not being parallel. Do we sometimes have to look beyond the first item? All items have the same part of speech.

i understand the "more than likely" problem exists, but nevertheless really wanted to nail the parallelism aspect.

To be honest, I'm not a big fan of what this one is trying to do with parallelism and would not recommend this one as a good problem to study parallelism from. My biggest problem with A actually is that it says writing was likely to do something. This is a strange tense that conveys a sense that, from the perspective of some point in the past, writing was likely to follow some path that, from the perspective of the present, has now been closed off as an option..

Consider this as an example: "When I was a teenager, I was likely to go to the movies on a Friday night." This is no longer likely for me, but back then it was certainly likely. That is definitely not the sense the author of this sentence is trying to convey, which is what is wrong with the meaning of A..

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Tim Sanders
Manhattan GMAT Instructor

Tim, thanks again that made perfect sense. I see another reason to look more closely at meaning / intention of the author.