Unless neither John nor Harry eat the pancake, Andrew must eat it.
Can someone help me understand the above sentence's meaning?
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Where did you get this sentence? It's unnecessarily obscure. And it requires the singular verb eats after neither. It seems to be trying to say that unless John or Harry eats the pancake, it's available to Harry.– Ronald SoleMay 25, 2022 at 15:15
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1@RonaldSole from a puzzle book. Plural verb eat is there after neither per the book.– chanzerreMay 25, 2022 at 15:25
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I'm closing this question because it is about language designed to be difficult to understand for fun, so this is about a puzzle rather than a question about learning English.– gotube ♦May 25, 2022 at 22:28
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But... for what it's worth, "unless" can be replaced with "only if not", then "not neither ... nor ..." can be replaced with "either ... or ...", so it means "If either John or Harry eats the pancake, Andrew must eat it (too)."– gotube ♦May 25, 2022 at 22:29
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@gotube the puzzle is mathematical (reasoning based), not what you suggest. Please reconsider.– chanzerreMay 26, 2022 at 2:25
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1 Answer
...neither John nor Harry eat the pancake...
John does not eat the pancake and Harry does not eat the pancake.
Unless...
If the thing following does not happen.
So the sentence as written makes no sense. It states that Andrew must eat the pancake if either John or Harry has eaten it.
I would bet good money that the writer meant
Unless either John or Harry eats the pancake, Andrew must eat it.
or equivalently
If neither John nor Harry eats the pancake, Andrew must eat it.
