Jose Carillo's English Forum
English Grammar and Usage Problems => Use and Misuse => Topic started by: Miss Mae on October 20, 2014, 08:03:35 PM
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Sir, should the adjective no be repeated every time it introduces the noun behind it (such as in letter A)? Or is doing it once already okay (such as in letter B)?
(A) There is no enrollment form, no membership fee, and no restrictions on the frequency of use.
(B) There is no enrollment form, membership fee, and restrictions on the frequency of use.
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No, it's not absolutely necessary to use "no" to negate every noun in the series; the initial "no" for the first noun normally suffices. To strongly emphasize the negation, however, repeating the "no" for every item in the series may be called for or even desirable. As you might have noticed, such repeated negation is often put to good use in advertising language and in rhetorical flourishes for speeches and debates. In a TV commercial pitching a post-paid cellphone service, for instance, it would be so lame and surprisingly unnatural if the endorser didn't take recourse to the repeated negation of Version A:"There is no enrollment form, no membership fee, and no restrictions on the frequency of use!"
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Uh, okay. Thank you.