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I wrote this sentence in my essay

Not only such institutes provide physical support but the elderly also get emotional support from their fellows and caretakers.

I want to say that old age homes (institutes) not only provide physical support (help in completing their daily chores) but they also provide emotional support as the fellows and caretakers provide love and respect to older people.

What is the mistake in this sentence. From what i have looked online, we have to use same kind of word after not only and but also. That is if we are using a verb after not only then we have to use the verb after but also. Is there any other mistake in this sentence? How can i possibly rewrite the sentence using same structure?

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Not only X, but also Y

The word “do” will be very useful here. If you remember the three forms that the present tense can take — “I run, I am running, I do run” — then you’ll recognize the proper use of “do“.

Not only do institutes provide X, they provide Y.

Not only does the hotel provide X, it provides Y.

Not only does the hotel provide X, it also provides Y.

Someone who wants to make it a simpler sentence might say:

The hotel does not provide only Wi-Fi, it also provides breakfast.

The hotel does not only provide Wi-Fi, it also provides breakfast.

The hotel provides not only Wi-Fi, it also provides breakfast.

The hotel does provide both breakfast and Wi-Fi.

The hotel provides both breakfast and Wi-Fi.

Parts of speech

When you use "not only X but [also] Y", X and Y should be the same part of speech (type of word). This is called "parallelism".

It can be two verbs:

Not only does the hotel provide breakfast, it washes your car.

It can be two nouns:

The hotel provides not only apples, but [also] bananas. The institute provides not only training, but also support. The institute does provide not only training, but also support.

It can be two adjectives:

The hotel is not only historic, but [also] beautiful.

When the subject is different

In your example sentence you wrote a sentence like this:

Not only do institutes provide XXX, the elderly receive YYY.

This is grammatically okay: both the first clause and the second clause look like "verb noun".

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  • @whiskeychief..you have used 'it' and 'it also' intentionally in the example sentences? I am asking that because not only..but also requires same kind of word after each of them. That is if we have used a verb after not only then we have to use a verb after but also. But in your example sentences this rule is not followed. – Sudhir Sharma Jun 21 '19 at 3:08
  • Can you explain more what you mean? “not only...but also requires (the) same kind of word after each of them.” – whiskeychief Jun 21 '19 at 19:01
  • not only then a verb..but also then again a verb...its the right way to use it...a verb and a adjective combination will be wrong, for example. – Sudhir Sharma Jun 21 '19 at 19:04
  • You're correct -- "not only X but [also] Y" should have X and Y as both verbs, both adjectives, or both nouns, not a mixture. I'll add this to the answer. – whiskeychief Jun 21 '19 at 19:11
  • @whiskeychief...in your current answer the examples you have used are different from not..but also. So, are they correct? – Sudhir Sharma Jun 21 '19 at 19:19

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