Are the following sentence correct?
- It isn’t so much the doctor’s looks that offend me as his devious personality.
- It isn’t so much the doctor’s looks as his devious personality that offfends me.
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Both sentences are correct, however, between the two, the first sentence flows more naturally for typical English usage.
Tell me Renard74 have you ever had an nasty experience with a doctor? Of course, you needn’t feel obliged telling me.
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Thanks for answering, Masme,
Yes, by quite a young doctor, but I do not wish to elaborate further. However, I know a woman who was about to give birth and, due to certain complications, she asked the obstetrician at the hospital if he would perform a caesarean section. He refused, despite knowing and having explained to her what the complications were, to perform a caesarean section. The result was that the child had died before it was even born, and the doctor had the audacity to place the dead child in her arms and say, “I am sorry, madam, but unfortunately your baby has passed away.”
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Thank you for sharing this with us. It must be horrible for the poor woman, since she has to live with this dreadful and horrific experience for the rest of her life. I mean, between the mother and the child the cord is never really cut, is it? I think the doctor should be punished severely and put behind bars where he belongs.
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Oh, Masme, thank you for being so empathetic, because the woman is still suffering from this heartache.
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The question is: What offends you?
In the first sentence, it is the doctor’s looks and in the second sentence, it is his devious personality.
The syntax is clearly suggestive of the contexts.
Now, you may decide on the choice of either of these grammatically acceptable sentences.
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Renard74,
When it concerns a so-called renowned doctor, I am acquainted with that abomination. Do not be deterred by his costly solicitors, for you may always seek my counsel—I possess superior and more extravagant ones. Moreover, whispers abound that he surrounds himself with exceedingly youthful individuals who encourage depravity. Yet, should they be spared if their actions are merely to fulfil his desires for monetary gain? I am firmly of the opinion that they should not. And might I add, the man has never possessed an ounce of style or refinement to his name, even when it merely appears otherwise.
You’re very close — just one tiny correction needed!
First sentence:
It isn’t so much the doctor’s looks that offend me as his devious personality.
→ This is correct.
Second sentence:
It isn’t so much the doctor’s looks as his devious personality that offfends me.
→ There’s a typo: offfends should be offends (only two "f"s).
So corrected, it would be:
It isn’t so much the doctor’s looks as his devious personality that offends me.
Both sentences are grammatically correct (once you fix the typo), and both sound natural.
They just emphasize things slightly differently:
- First one: focuses more on what offends you.
- Second one: focuses more on the comparison between looks and personality.
Would you like me to show you a few more similar examples? 
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You’re right, Torsten,
I should also like to add that there’s a rather growing tendency of replacing ‘as’ by ‘but’. But since this construction is rather difficult, I think that students of English sometimes have difficulty understanding this, don’t you?