<p>Is this a mistake? If it isn't, please EXPLAIN WHY! (maybe give the correction?)</p>
<p>Although I know this house and this neighborhood as well as I know myself, AND EVEN THOUGH MY FRIEND HERE SEEMS HARDLY TO KNOW THEM AT ALL, nevertheless he has lived here longer than I.</p>
<p>Apparently, this is correct.</p>
<p>First of all I wanna note that this sentence does not seem to me to be a question that would appear on the SAT. So I advise you to use only material released by the College Board and the test-makers themselves (particularly The Official SAT Study Guide, aka the blue book) because that material is the most accurate and more similar to the questions you’ll see on the SAT than material made by independent companies like Princeton Review and Barron’s.</p>
<p>Anyway, there is a problem with the structure of that sentence. There is one clause that starts with “although” and another clause that starts with “even though,” so logically there are two SEPARATE things that serve as a contrast to the clause “he has lived here longer than I.” To make the original sentence coherent you would have to COMBINE these two concepts into one “although …” clause, as in (shortened so it reads better) Although I know this neighborhood well while my friend doesn’t, he has lived here longer than I. If you separate the concepts, then they would be treated independently and the sentence wouldn’t make sense.</p>
<p>Here are some examples of this case:</p>
<p>CORRECT: Even though he is fat and she is skinny, he runs faster than her.
INCORRECT: Even though he is fat, and even though he is skinny, he runs faster than her.
(The fact that he is fat and the fact that she is skinny have to be put together into one “even though …” clause in order for the sentence to make sense.)</p>
<p>CORRECT: When I am hungry and I eat, I get a sense of pleasure.
INCORRECT: When I am hungry, and when I eat, I get a sense of pleasure.
(The incorrect sentence is saying that you get a sense of pleasure when you are hungry, and you get a sense of pleasure when you eat. This doesn’t make sense.)</p>
<p>Also, a few more things to note:</p>
<p>1) “nevertheless” is redundant with “although,” so it should be removed. You wouldn’t say “In spite of the fact that I am fat, in spite of that fact I run fast.” “Although” already means “in spite of the fact that …” so you don’t need another word to show the contrast. You either say “Although I am fat, I run fast” or “I am fat; nevertheless, I run fast.”</p>
<p>2) “hardly” means “barely,” so someone who seems to barely know his or her neighborhood does know the neighborhood…just not well.</p>
<p>3) “he has lived here longer than I” is acceptable, meaning “he has lived here longer than I have.” It is also acceptable and standard to say “he has lived here longer than me.”</p>
<p>So, to conclude, a proper version of that sentence would be Although I know this house and this neighborhood as well as I know myself and my friend here seems hardly to know them at all, he has lived here longer than I.</p>
<p>Crazy bandit, I don’t wanna sound picky, but in that example about the running example, isn’t is supposed to be “…he runs faster than she”? (not her)</p>
<p>No, both can work. You didn’t read this part in my post:
It can be used as either a conjunction (“than she” or “than she has”) or a preposition (“than her”). Here is the entry from the dictionary for the preposition: [Than[2</a>] - Definition and More from the Free Merriam-Webster Dictionary](<a href=“http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/than[2]]Than[2”>http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/than[2]). Read under “Usage Discussion” for elaboration.</p>
<p>Crazybandit, although you made several very astute points, I nevertheless disagree with two of them.</p>
<p>As you can see by my wittily crafted sentence, “nevertheless” is perfectly appropriate in the independent clause of the sentence. Since “nevertheless” is an adverb, it isn’t redundant, but it rather emphasizes the juxtaposition of the concessional statement. </p>
<p>The other point I would disagree with you on is the idea that it is incorrect to start one clause with “although” and another with “even though” and then put them in the same sentence together. On the contrary, the sentence is structured very logically, albeit awkwardly. If the writer were to put “I know this house and this neighborhood as well as I know myself” and “my friend here seems hardly to know them at all” under a singular “although,” then the writer would have to equate the two. In reality, the writer is stating that the main clause exists under each concession independently. The meaning is thus slightly different, yet different nonetheless.</p>