Question
Updated on
Andrewlu
22 Jul 2016

  • Simplified Chinese (China)
  • English (US)
Question about English (UK)

A: The laser is no nifty portable.
B: The laser is no nifty or portable.
which one is more natural? Does this sound natural?

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kassidy1998
22 Jul 2016

  • English (UK)
  • French (Canada)

Unnatural

@Andrewlu: it would be: "the laser is not nifty or portable."

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liu_rui_fu
22 Jul 2016

  • Malay

Unnatural

in addition to that, use 'nor' instead of 'or'

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Andrewlu
22 Jul 2016

  • Simplified Chinese (China)
@kassidy1998 @lie_rui_fu I quote this from my book. you can search the sentence online: The laser is no nifty portable: it's a monster that takes up a whole room.
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kassidy1998
22 Jul 2016

  • English (UK)
  • French (Canada)

Unnatural

Oh! I think I understand now. "Portable" is being used as a noun in this sentence and not as an adjective. So yes, the original sentence you posted is correct. Sorry for the confusion :)

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liu_rui_fu
22 Jul 2016

  • Malay

Unnatural

Then it is just one of the literature style, it is meant to be written that way, but not in speech~

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Andrewlu
22 Jul 2016

  • Simplified Chinese (China)
@kassidy1998 if portable refers to a noun, it's easy to understand. thank you.
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Andrewlu
22 Jul 2016

  • Simplified Chinese (China)
@lie_rui_fu yes, I'm doing IELTS reading.
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