“He just borrows them, not steal(s)” — Coordination of a negated verb in ellipsis
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Little John keeps borrowing Bob's colored pencils but he's too playful to remember to give them back. Bob's mom is upset and talks to John's about it. John's mom would say something along the lines of either He just borrows them, not steal . or He just borrows them, not steal s . Which one is grammatically correct? Why? I know it's feasible (and probably safer) not to omit anything and go with two full sentences. On the other hand, sometimes we need to emphasize the contrast between the two verbs, or need to be simply more concise. Consider another example, in the legal sense of the verbs, without omission of the s