5 exercises — practise the emphatic idiom "nothing if not".
0 / 5 completed
1 / 5
Which sentence correctly uses "nothing if not" to emphatically confirm a quality?
"The new lead is nothing if not thorough..." correctly follows the fixed idiom with a plain adjective. Option B wrongly inserts the comparative "more". Option C wrongly inserts "that". Option D scrambles the fixed word order of "if not".
2 / 5
Which sentence correctly uses "nothing if not" to emphatically describe a system's defining trait?
"The architecture is nothing if not consistent..." correctly uses the idiom with no internal comma and an adjective, "consistent". Option B wrongly inserts commas that break the fixed idiom. Option C wrongly expands it into a literal conditional clause, changing the meaning entirely. Option D wrongly uses the noun "consistency" instead of the adjective.
3 / 5
Which sentence correctly distinguishes the idiomatic "nothing if not" (emphatic confirmation) from its literal reading as a conditional ("nothing, if [condition] is not met")?
"...nothing if not detailed, and... worth nothing if the data... is not accurate" correctly keeps the fixed emphatic idiom in the first clause and a separate, literal conditional in the second. The other options blend the two uses together in ways that confuse or garble the intended meaning.
4 / 5
Which sentence correctly uses "nothing if not" to emphasize a colleague's persistence in a retrospective comment?
"She is nothing if not persistent..." correctly uses the plain adjective "persistent" right after the fixed idiom. Option B wrongly uses the adverb "persistently". Option C inserts unnecessary commas. Option D expands the idiom into a literal conditional, which changes the intended emphatic meaning.
5 / 5
Which sentence correctly uses "nothing if not" to emphasize how ambitious a roadmap is?
"This roadmap is nothing if not ambitious..." correctly uses the plain adjective "ambitious". Option B wrongly uses the noun "ambition". Option C wrongly inserts the comparative "more". Option D wrongly inserts "it" inside the fixed idiom.