What is the correct usage of either and neither and what grammar tricks can we use to remember which one to use? Read on for a quick brush up on some English language skills.
My mother seems to appreciate having a grammar lover in the family. For Christmas one year, she even bought me the book I Judge You When You Use Poor Grammar. (By the way, it is equally correct to say “bad grammar.”)
Recently, my mother emailed to ask if she was using the word “nor” correctly, which brings me to today’s article: the use of either, neither, and the connecting words that go with them.
Either/Or, Neither/Nor
First things first:
If you are using either and nor together, I hate to break it to you, but you’re doing it wrong.
Additionally, nor is generally not used where neither is not also used. Got enough negative terms in there for you? Here’s an example of what I mean:
“I fear man nor beast!” Jay proclaimed as Frank stared at the python coiled on the branch over his head. (Wrong.)
“I fear neither man nor beast!” Jay proclaimed as Frank stared at the python coiled on the branch over his head. (Right!)
Correct Use of Either
When either is used with or, it's called a correlative conjunction. (“Correlative” just means having a relationship and a conjunction is a connecting word.)
Either is used when you are making a comparison between two ideas, and only one of the ideas will come to pass. It expresses options. Example:
“Well,” said Frank, “either you start fearing, or you are camping by yourself.”
Correct Use of Neither
Neither indicates that the two ideas are linked together. Both ideas are false, or won't come to pass. It’s kind of like a negative conjunction.
But if you use neither, then make sure your sentence does not have any other negatives preceding it. If you prefer to use a negative, then you want to use either.
Take a look at these two sentences that both make the correct choice:
Jay had seen neither the snake nor the wasp’s nest on the next tree, and he was preparing to stake his tarp in that less-than-safe location.
Jay had not seen either the snake or the wasp’s nest on the next tree, and he was preparing to stake his tarp in that less-than-safe location.
Both of these sentences are correct, and you can choose which way you'd like to write them according to what you want to emphasize. The first sentence focuses on the two things Jay didn't see, while the second sentence chooses the negative “not seen” to emphasize Jay's lack of awareness.
Use Either/Or and Neither/Nor With Confidence
You can choose to use either “neither/nor” or “either/or” wherever you need them. Just remember this quick trick:
“Either” and “or” both begin with vowels, so they go together.
And “neither” and “nor” both start with “n,” so they go together too.
With these examples and that memory trick, hopefully you will never see a stray “nor” again.
What do you find tricky about using either/or and neither/nor? Do you have any grammar tricks for remembering which to use? Tell us in the comments.
Need more grammar help? After you master “neither nor” and “either or” in the practice section below, check out my favorite tool, ProWritingAid, which helps writers improve their grammar, sentence structure, and more. Also, be sure to use my coupon code to get 20 percent off: WritePractice20
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PRACTICE
Tell us about a disastrous camping trip, even if it never happened. Use either/or and neither/nor to establish how much your characters would rather be anywhere but the Arctic tundra or Rocky Mountain wilderness or the Griswold family camping trip.
Write about your camping trip for fifteen minutes. Then, post your practice in the Pro Practice Workshop and leave feedback for other writers.
First, I judge people with bad grammar and proofread stuff but then I re-read my own and shudder.
Second, are there not exceptions when “nor” can be used without “neither” as long as the sentence is negative. For example, “She can’t ski nor can she ice skate.” Maybe that’s a bad example but I can’t think of a better one.
Katie
True, Katie, you can use “nor” in conjunction with another negative. For example:
I don’t like getting up early, nor do I like setting alarms.
Generally it’s a judgment call by the writer/editor to decide which sounds better.
Liz Bureman,
Thank you for your explanation the either…or conjunction. Now, I understand it.
Bounthong Chanthavisouk
“I told you I should have stayed home. I hate camping and now I’m sick,” said Jenny to her husband.
“You’re not sick Jenny, you’re just having a little allergic reaction to either something that we walked though today on the trail, or something you ate at the camper’s cantina.”
“A little reaction, you call hives all over my body a little reaction? I hate this. I wish we’d either gone to New York, on gone on a cruise. Why did we have to do this? Don’t think we’re getting a camper like Tom and Rachel’s. I hate this and I never want to do it again,” she said and she began to cry.
“Did you take some Benedryl?” said her husband.
“Yes I took it a little while ago. You know that neither Tom nor Rachel have any kind of allergies. They can take this camping junk. You can take it. But I can’t.”
“Okay I get it. We won’t do this again, but let’s try to enjoy it now. We’re going to cook steak and then maybe play either Trivial Pursuit or Scrabble or something. Is that doable?”
“Yeah you can do that. I’m not. I don’t like either of those games, nor do I like steak.”
“Fine then. I’ll go and represent our family.”
“We need a family representative at a state campground? These aren’t our neighbors, they’re just people who happen to have their big fancy camper near our stupid tent. We aren’t obligated to them.”
“So you don’t want me to go?”
“You can go if you want. I might have a reaction to the Benadryl though. It can make people sleep walk. I would hate to walk away out her in the woods.”
“Okay then Jenny, I’ll go and tell them that we can’t make it, and I’ll stay here with you. I can fan you so you don’t sweat away your Calamine Lotion. Tom and Rachel have AC in their camper.”
Jenny thought about the AC. It was tempting. maybe steak and Scrabble were a good idea, but the Benadryl was kicking in and she felt her eyes closing. She tried to dream up another complaint, but she could neither keep her eyes open, nor head up. She felt herself falling in a heap on her cot. What a life, camping, yuck were her last thought before falling asleep.
Way to follow directions and put together a very fun piece, Marianne. This one was my favorite use of either / or, “We’re going to cook steak and then maybe play either Trivial Pursuit or Scrabble or something.” I think I liked it because of how funny it is to think of playing Trivial Pursuit, the most difficult game in the world in my opinion, on a camping trip.
The only thing that would have made this better is if you ended it, “Either, ‘what a life,’ ‘camping,’ or ‘yuck’ was her last thought before falling asleep. She couldn’t tell. She was already gone.”
Very entertaining, Marianne. Nice conflict and a good bit of sarcastic humor. I liked it.
Thanks Joe. I had fun writing that and it is really a fifteen minute one. I can write a lot more dialogue than description in fifteen minutes. Weird. I would think that it would be the other way around.
Good work. Sounds like my wife! I’m kidding, of course.
This post is real helpful. I’m always making sure I’m using proper grammer. Just because it sounds right doesn’t mean it is. There, their and they’re is also often used incorrectly.
Thanks Maggie. It’s funny, Liz wrote about that last week. Check it:
thewritepractice.com/never-confuse-there-their-and-theyre-again
Cant nor be used independent of neither when constructing a compound sentence for instance using fanboys?
This post is timed perfectly, since there’s been a question on “either” here at work. Is it proper to say “Me neither” or “Me either”? (In response, for instance, to: “I don’t like cockroaches.”) Eh?
Oooh, a good question. In informal spoken English, you really can use either one.
Personally, I prefer “me neither” because it reinforces the negative that the speaker is expressing (and because you don’t have that awkward double vowel sound). But if you’re in Australia or the UK, “me either” might be more common.
I had a question in relation to this as well. The usage of “Either way…” or “Neither of them…” I tend to use “Either way” quite a bit. I also tend to use “quite a bit” quite a bit. Any suggestions? That’s the beauty of a limited vocabulary, I suppose.
“You have fifteen minutes.” said the doctor. I could see he was upset. He is an organized man and likes neither surprises nor unscheduled visits from patients. But I had to get this off my chest.
“Thanks for seeing me.” I said.
“What’s on your mind?”
“I had that dream again. The one with the empty house across the street.”
“Yes. What did you see?” He asked while jotting on his note pad.
“The lights. The lights were on in the upstairs bedroom.”
“Hmm. This is new.”
I have the same recurring dream of the house. In reality the house sits vacant. Nobody has lived there for month’s. No one even visits the house. There is not even a for sale sign in the yard. The lawn is in disarray and the shrubs have grown up over the front porch. The lack of attention to the house makes it stick out like a sore thumb. The neighbors hate it and none of their kids will go near it. None of us know why it still sits vacant. It’s either the economy or simple lack of interest. In my dream, the house is normally dark and empty but this time it showed signs of life.
“What did you do in the dream?” he responds.
“The same thing as always. I walked across the street to see if anyone was there.”
In my dream, it played out like a scene from a horror movie. The air is cold and moist. There isn’t much sound. I can hear the wind blowing but I can neither feel it nor see the effects of it in the tree’s. I walk across my lawn and stop under the streetlight. The moon is covered by clouds and the streetlight is the only source of light, other than the window.
“But this time I think I saw someone moving behind the curtains.” I continued.
As always, in my dream, I walk up the empty drive way until I get to the stairs that leads up to the front door, my eyes never leaving the movement in the window. The stairs are cracked and warped. They squeak and groan when I step on them. They are either old or neglected. Probably both.
“And how did you feel?”
I swallowed hard. “I… I felt afraid.”
I usually stand on the front porch, away from the door but this time I found myself facing the door with my hand raised, ready to knock.
The doctor leaned in a little and stared at me over his bifocals.
“What made you afraid Frank?”
“The unknown I guess. I think somebody was in the house this time.”
I couldn’t move as I stood at the door. My arm could neither knock nor drop back down to my side. I was frozen. Then the upstairs light went off.
I hear footsteps. They are loud and make a thud with each step. Slowly, the footsteps get louder. I can hear them coming down the stairs in the house. They are getting closer.
“What happened next?” the doctor asked as he wrote more vigorously on his note pad. “What was your reaction?”
“I waited.”
I had to make a decision. I either run or face what is about to come from behind that door. I slowly move backwards. I take slow, tiny steps until I feel my heels drop slightly from the edge of the porch. The footsteps stop just inside the door, only a few feet away from me. I hear the locks on the door disengage and the door knob starts to turn.
The doctor has my complete attention now. “What came through the door Frank?”
The door opens slowly and it reveals something I never expected. I was neither ready nor prepared for what stood in the threshold.
“Doctor, It was…”
The phone rang suddenly, breaking my train of thought. The doctor ignored it for a second but reluctantly answered it.
“Okay, Okay send her in.” he said softly to his receptionist.
“Frank. Your fifteen minutes is up.” He thumbed through his date book. ” I will see you next Thursday. Jenny will validate your parking.” he said as he raised his hand towards the door.
What was it?! What was it?! Great job keeping my attention. Well played.
Wow. Nice Stewart. Not exactly about a camping trip, but you really load up the suspense. I like it.
I like the fifteen minutes is up. The fifteen minute thing is like our exercises here , you get started and then have to stop. The setting is really eerie. When you write he can hear the wind ,but not see or feel it, it just gave me the creeps.
Sorry for not following directions. I’m not sure why I didn’t see the part about camping. Thanks for the compliments.
No problem, Stewart. Just makes things easier. I’m sort of glad you didn’t follow the directions because you wrote this thriller of a piece.
Although you have an interesting concept, I recommend to be cautious in switching between 1st and 3rd person. It seems that you focus your story in 1st person yet put quotations marks when the narrator talks. Also, using more actions than helping verbs will help your story seem more alive. Nonetheless, it has potential to become a good piece. Best wishes.
Liz, I like the connection between you & your mom that makes a grammar post more personal. Good copywriting strategy to personalize and connect people to the Copy Queen who’s writing.
Alright. About 17 minutes. Here it is:
……
Savanna reached into her purse and pulled out the lip balm. Her hands trembled. “This has to be the most disastrous camping trip of our lives,” she said. “Who the hell plans a trip to Greenland in the middle of winter? Wait, I take that back. Who plans a trip to Greenland period?”
He stopped walking. He turned just slightly to his left where she was standing and looked at her as she stood, smearing lip balm frantically across her face.
“If you would’ve just listened to me and stopped when I suggested,” she said, “then we wouldn’t be in mess, would we?”
“Well, if you could just shut up for more than 5 seconds…” he thought.
“I love you too, Savanna,” he said.
He started walking again but he pace slower than earlier. She didn’t move. She moved one arm across the other and looked straight as he kept moving.
“Can’t you just apologize for once?” she yelled.
He turned around and faced her and started walking backward and said, “Apologize for what exactly? For trying to have a great vacation with my wife? For taking time off work and planning for weeks to have some alone time with you? It was either Greenland or Hawaii. I figured since we’ve been to Hawaii like six times, you’d want to do something different. So, please, feel free to tell me.”
He stopped. She looked down and then starting moving slowly in his direction.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “Who would want to go to Hawaii, right? Instead, I’d rather be here with you. Freezing to death. And with a car – a brand new car, mind you – that doesn’t even start because you slammed into the side of a tree in the middle of Nowhere, Greenland!”
He dropped his head and smiled and waited for her to reach him.
“It’s alright,” he said, “I forgive you.”
Hey Bo. Great scene!
I like the distance between what he thinks and what he says here, ““Well, if you could just shut up for more than 5 seconds…” he thought. “I love you too, Savanna,” he said.
And that ending! I love how you reveal what happened and why she’s so mad right at the end of the scene. Plus, Savanna is delightfully sarcastic.
Nicely done, sir.
Thanks Joe! This was a fun one. I tried imagining my wife in a situation like that. She has a way with words. 🙂
I read an article about Greenland in National Geographic recently. Apparently their thrilled with the prospect of global warming because it might make their island more habitable.
Ha! That’ll be the day. The only thing I know about Greenland is from one of my high school teachers. He said “Greenland should’ve been named Iceland and Iceland should’ve been named Greenland.” Apparently someone made a mistake somewhere.
It’s true! But Iceland was named by the Vikings to discourage people from moving there. They didn’t want to let on that it was awesome. And Greenland was the opposite. It was named by a guy who was exiled (if I remember correctly). He was hoping to attract a few more friends.
Maybe that’s the reason why he was exiled. Cause he was an idiot. 🙂
That’s funny! If my husband even thought about a Greenland vacation I’d have him committed . Good writing IMO.
Thanks! I tried to stay within the rules so I chose Greenland as part of the Arctic tundra. Not my first choice. Heck, not my second choice either.
One of the issues I often find confusing. Thanks for clearing it up!
I understand the either– or concepts. Separate ideas—right? What if a math question uses either and or in a question? For example, my students need to look at a bar graph to answer questions and one of the questions read as follows: How many students like either yellow, green, or purple? My understanding of the question means I should separate each color with the corresponding number on the graph. However, the answer was the total number of the three colors. It seems to me the wording of the math question could mislead the students. What do you think?
Not only is the question misleading, but the total number of the three colors would be a wrong answer based upon the wording of the question. A way to state the question that would make the total number of the three colors correct: What is the total number of students who like either yellow, green or purple?
Well, thanks, could you tell me as I remember learning a long ago that when we use neither nor we kinda make sentnces like this: neither he called, nor did he write back. Is is correct ? thanks.
It’s almost correct! You want to restructure the sentence so that the subject (he) is before the neither. Generally it’s also a good rule of thumb to structure the phrases after the neither and nor similarly. Since the subject is already used before the neither, you can just use the verbs after the neither-nor (he neither called nor wrote back).
it’s clear now , but can u give me another examples for * Neither *
What about when the combination of neither-nor begins a sentence?
I’d also like to see an answer to this question.
???
Neither Jackie nor Sandy were able to help their friend Kim solving her problem.
Neither Jackie nor Sandy were able to help their friend Kim solve her problem. Neither Jackie nor Sandy were able to help their friends Kim or Carol solve either of their problems.
Hello, can I say:
I have not seen that boy. Neither at home nor at school.
I might write that up and see if it works.
we can’t create a something new either me or you on this forum..lol
Hi, I have a question: Can I say:
I have not seen that boy. Neither at home nor at school.
“Neither at home nor at school” is not a complete sentence. I have seen that boy neither at home nor at school. I have not seen that boy either at home or at school.
i know its correct but its weird to me to say you have seen the boy not. it seems it should say a place you have seen him, if not then you never had seen him hence the verb seen should not be in the sentence.
that is perfect.
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Is this correct?
”I refuse to answer, nor talk about this matter with you.”
The Camping Trip from Hell.
Years ago while still at university a friend invited me on a camping trip. I have never been on a camping trip before and did not know what to expect. The bus was late leaving campus and we arrived five minutes last check-in time. Neither the guy, who was still busy padlocking the gate, nor the camp manager would let us in. ‘The rules are the rules.’ He said.
After the dreary bus ride and now we had to camp in front of the gate too, and next to the side of a busy road. We did not have tents, as this was hiking trip from camp to camp in the bush veld, South African style. Lions will eat you otherwise, not true, but there are creepy crawlies that will.
The only time you are able to hike in the bush is in winter. Either you die from heat exhaustion or freeze to death at night, your choice. Guess what? That night we slept outside in our sleeping bags in nearly freezing temperatures. I remember I put on all my clothes and kept my shoes on. A bad idea as feet swell at night and it was nearly impossible to sleep. Before you ask; ‘Why didn’t you cuddle up?’. Well, I’m from a strict Afrikaans family, my dad would have killed me. Those were the days. The mere thought was enough to make me chose to freeze my ass off rather than cuddle with a boy. The friend was not my boyfriend at that time, and even if he was, I still would not have climbed with him into his sleeping bag.
The next two days was not much better. To my horror we marched 15 miles a day, to get to the next overnight huts in time. No time to stop and take in the pretty views. I was past caring anyway. I marched on.
The camping trip from hell was the first and the last one, I have ever undertaken. Either I ‘camp’ on Mojito, my boat, or in a hotel. Camping is not for me, pretty as the bush veld in Africa may be.
Is this correct? with the use of “wouldn’t” being a negative, would “nor” work in the subsequent part of the sentence?
“I wouldn’t like that either, and nor would I like to see that happen.”
“People have long been divided into dog-lovers and cat-lovers, although I should add that for many people neither animal inspires much emotion either way.” is this correct?
Yep!
I had a question. Which one is correct?
Neither you, nor I, know what is going on.
Or
Neither you, nor I, knows what is going on.
And why?
Thank you
Neither you, nor I, know what is going on.
Why? If you took out the neither, making it, “You and I don’t know what is going on.” Knows sounds weird.
But it says on the rule: Two singular subjects connected by or or nor require a singular verb.
Gosh, this makes me confuse. 🙁
But it works similarly like both. When you use both, it will be : both A and B are great. Thus, in using neither : neither A not B are great.
What if one between the two subjects is plural ?
Say for examle,
Neither them nor I
or
Neither I nor them
In such cases,
what will the verb form ? Whether singular or plural ?
Both wrong. Should be either ‘Neither them nor me’ or ‘Neither I nor they’ (but I expect some would insist on ‘Neither they nor I’ for the second one). In the first one the verb form depends on the subject, not ‘them/me’; in the second there is no 3rd pers sing subject so ‘have’.
I think the verb agrees with the subject (I know, you know). If it were she/he, one would use “knows”.
The tone in this sentence is neither very
positive nor very negative.
Hi! How are you? Can you help me with this? I don’t know if it’s right: “You don’t have either money or a job”….”You have neither money nor a job”. Thank you 🙂
Please, is this sentence correct?
“It’s not allowed nor is it kind of you to…”
Thank you!
What about this – neither of you is … or neither of you are … `- is it IS or ARE??
It’s ‘is’. Both ‘either’ and ‘neither’ are singular and require a singular form of the verb in the sentence that follows. For example, ‘either IS correct’, or ‘neither is correct.
I think the following is correct” Neither my parents nor my son is here.”
or “Neither my son nor my parents are here.” ,,, but the former doesn’t sound right.
The verb uses the subject closest to it.
I couldn’t help but notice that you made a grammatical error in your article. “You’re doing it wrongLY”, not “you’re doing it wrong.” Adjectives (e.g. “wrong”) describe nouns, while adverbs (e.g. “wrongly”) describe verbs (e.g. “doing”).
that would certainly be the case if the word “wrongly” existed.
why you’re doing it very badly. You’re doing the wrong way. You’re fucking it. You’re actually doing it like shit.
“wrongly identified”, “wrongly calibrated”, but yes, not often seen outside of compounds…
I think you mean “wrongfully”.
Wrongly accused
I am sorry to say that you are wrong here. When you use the adjective “wrong” after a predicate, it is considered an adverb.
Why isn’t neither nor considered a double negative?
So when someone says “I cannot imagine my life without you”, how should I respond? Me either? Me neither? Something totally different? How do I pair “or” or “nor” with that?
How about “Me, too”. Less complicated. 🙂
I have noticed recently that the advertisement to turn off your cellphone before a movie may have a grammar mistake and I wanted to figure it out once and for all. The advertisement says “This is not the time nor place.” Is it correct? I believe not.
Please, please, please answer this. I’m scouring the internet in search of the answer to this because it drives me crazy every. Single. Time. If I’m going to be that irritating grammar geek that emails the theater, I want to make sure I’m correct. Century Theatres/Cinemark, the advertisement in question can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgU2ue37hgY
According to the rule of using “either” when you already have a negative in the sentence like “not”, I believe it should be “or”. You are correct, the advertisement is wrong! Please confirm this Joe? Brilliant article!! This is always the one place I have to stop and hesitate when writing a sentence!! Its so bothersome but you have really clarified it for me!
Thanks for the clarification
What about this sentence: “He neither has nor will accept your terms.” please tell me why it is right or wrong. thanks.
Throw in some ellipses with appropriate context, and you can pair either/nor if you want…
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Thank you SO very much! No english professor has ever put it more simply. This really helped me. I am neither displeased nor frustrated with this tutorial. I’m not either disappointed or ignorant of how to use these words any longer. 🙂 -Peggie
Awesome!
what kind of verb will be used if article occurs with both singular and plural noun in such sentences
Thanks a lot for helpful tips about either and neither. I something also get mistake with either and neither. Since I read this topic, I can distinguish how to use either and neither.
Great! Thanks Zeus!
🙂 I was using it correctly! 🙂 Thank you
It’s not like you liked me neither
this is cool. thanks c u n t
is this construction correct : “I realize that not everyone learns at the same speed neither they do with the same methodologies”
I don’t think so. Try, “I realize that not everyone learns at the same speed or with the same methodologies.”
can we have either, or, or?
Yes!
Neither bill nor david will go to the trip
“To the one who professes to love me and never leave me:You are not the first nor will be the last to say so.” Is this correct?
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Either and or: You either stay there or join with us.
Neither and nor: ( i still don’t get it?)
Please help me 🙁
Either…or = choice between two options.
Neither…nor = two options that are not possible/cannot happen.
E.g., You can stay there. You can join us. –> You can either stay there or join us.
You can’t go home. You can’t travel anywhere else. –> You can neither go home nor travel anywhere else.
A brilliant post! There is a book in which you can find this case looked at a different angle: ‘Most common mistakes non-native speakers of English make’. http://www.amazon.com/Common-Mistakes-Non-Native-Speakers-English-ebook/dp/B00MFQVTDE
“Well,” said Frank, “ you either start fearing, or you are camping by yourself.”
I understand the difference between either and neither now, thanks. There’s still something that confuses me though. English is my 2nd language so i don’t know if this is a dumb question haha. Either or neither at the end of a sentence confuses me often. For example: ‘I don’t like cats either’ is that the correct use of either or do i have to say ‘i don’t like cats neither’ or are both wrong?
Thanks, Lisette
i am studying English and i think “I dont like cats either or neither” depends on what was said before that sentence !! Am i wrong?
We can’t use “NEITHER” in case we have negatives in sentences (not like). Thus, the most appropriate variant is “I don’t like cats EITHER.”BTW, it was mentioned in this article.
…And if I have to say more than two things?
For example:
I don’t know either italian, or spanish, or english…
Is it OK?
(I’m a student of English, excuseme my mistakes)
Either is only used for two options, as far as I know, so you would take it out and just write “I don’t know Italian, Spanish, or English” (don’t forget your capitals). When speaking, we can hear “either” used in longer lists, but it’s usually because the later options are afterthoughts…
Or you can extend the list with a “neither”, e.g., “I don’t know either Italian or Spanish, neither do I know English…”
Not sure if this is site is still active. But I do have a question I am hoping you can assist with. I was taught the words “and” and “also” never go together. It is redundant. Yet I hear it being used constantly. Everyone from the president to the news media to teachers and everyday people. Was I taught incorrectly? Or perhaps, the rule changed? It doesn’t even sound proper to me. Thank you in advance for your response. Claire
But as you are neither one nor the other, i hope you understand.
Yep!
is it ok?neither i want to misunderstand nor be misunderstood nor get hurt
neither i want to misunderstand nor be misunderstood nor get hurt . (is it correct?)
NO , but not so wrong ,, small thing to get it right is adding (To) in-front of the second and third sentence’s verbs
Neither i want to misunderstand nor to be misunderstood nor to get hurt
but still it seems a little uncommon , after all its three sentence in one
No, it’s wrong. It should be “we are neither rich nor poor ……”
I don’t have anything either in mind witnessed by myself neither a story i read to tell about , Either way I wanted to write something , if either its right or its wrong I wont be disappointed as I haven’t studied English for 3 years nor did I take a course to revise my language skill , I just hope you have read this far ,and if possible ,either tell me about mistakes I made or give me tips to increase my grammar skill , anyhow thanks so much for this extra information Which I neither did know for sure nor did I read it from any text books I had about English grammar , THANKS
You can also say , Neither Do i like cats ,,,,,Which basically turns to —– I do (NOT) like cats either —-((Remember Neither is a combination of (NOT and Either) ,,,also if neither is used before the subject and verb , then they change their places , although Its my second language i really love English grammar ,
What about this sentence: “I don’t like Ricky because of his rudeness neither of his word.” Is this grammatically correct for the use of neither?
I had neither studied about how I should adjust the ropes holding up a tent nor had I anticipated that ( not having done my homework treating this matter), the tent in question would actually be lying on us the next morning as opposed to being arched above us
The sentence sounds fine to me, only the introductory conjunction should read “In both cases” or simply “Either way”.
I would also take out the “only” and copy the structure in the first section, giving “nor is a high degree of input inclusivity alone enough to prevent setbacks.”
Neither and either are implicit of only 2 things being listed nor is also used to fallow not when more than 2 things are listed.
E.G. it is not thing 1, thing 2 nor thing 3
Or I could be completely wrong
mga baliw kayo
hahahahah joke……….
Thank you. I’ve been doing it wrong. My mathematical and computer programming brain has led me astray until now. I always viewed it as a parenthetical expression. I assumed using “neither” made both values negative so no need for “nor”. Unfortunately, due to this reasoning I couldn’t figure out HOW to use “nor” correctly. Lol
Please assist with this sentence, “He smiles and shows us in, even though he had never made the acquaintance of either one of us.” Is it correct?
Actually poor grammar and bad grammar are different. Bad relates to your skill and poor relates to your effort.
Consider:
“I am a bad tennis player. I always lose.”
“I am a good tennis player but today I lost because I played poorly.”
Thank you for the explanation. It has been very useful 🙂
This was our first vacation as a young family with a couple of small children. Our plans were to go camping around one of the lakes in south Missouri.
The first lake we found was completely full. No camping sites were available. The only thing we could do was either go to a motel or go back home.
We finally found a camp site, but the weather was threatening our plans. We had not bought a tent yet figuring we could find a store that would sell tents. We drove until we were sheer exhausted. We were getting frustrated and could not find the solution to our shelter from the rain.
We came across a small store that did not offer us a tent but a plastic drop cloth. Since it was getting so late and the rain was approaching rapidly we decided we would make that work and then go find a tent in the morning.
We strung the drop cloth so as to offer the best possible protection from the conditions. As we all snuggled in and went to sleep, we could hear the rain on the plastic. When we woke up the next morning we had huge spots that had filled with water and were sagging close to the ground but the rain had stopped. We cautiously crept out from under the sagging makeshift tent just in time for it to give way and flood all of our quilts, blankets, and food supplies.
We never did take a vacation of camping again.
What if you are saying something like “me either”, would it be said like that, or would it be said like “me neither” ?
Here’s the full explanation:http://public.wsu.edu/~brians/…
“Me neither,” unless in a full sentence.
Neither are any of your previous mistakes acceptable. – or
Nor are any of your previous mistakes acceptable. ?
Nor.
It was late in the morning when Sally and her friend decided to go for a camping trip, on their way going it happened that is either Sally sit next to the driver or drive her self. Suddenly a huge fall of a rock crashed the car, now there was a laud noise in the car saying ‘help’ but no one could hear them and Sally manege to get out of the car although she is injured, she tried to helping her friends also to get out till she had a chance of getting Tim out, Tim also try to help some friend out but neither Tim nor Sally were able to help their friends out ….
I HATE to point this out but it’s “First thing’s first….” 😉
I don’t think so. http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/7419/which-is-the-correct-idiom-first-things-first-or-first-things-first
Wow. I did not know……thank you….
Sally stared out the tinted
window of the family SUV, into the dull grey skies that lurked above. In a few
short minutes, they will arrive at the Griswold camping grounds.
Sally attempted to stretch out
her cramped arms in the utterly packed vehicle. To no surprise, the car had hit
a bump at the same time she started stretching, and her head bonked off of the
hard handle just above the window. Sally shook her head in disbelief and looked
at the handle with a questioned expression. She didn’t know why that thing was
even there.
They arrived at the Griswold
camping grounds. Her father and little brother excitedly leaped out of the car
filled with joy. Sally had neither moved from her seat, nor released the seatbelt.
She just wanted to be home.
The campgrounds looked grim, to
no surprise. Her father is never willing to fork out a dime for quality family
time. Sally finally releases the seatbelt after a few minutes of her little
brother smacking on the window telling her to come out. The worst part about
this, Sally thought, was that her dad will either fry up worms or cook small
animals like last time. The thought turned Sally’s stomach.
Sally stepped out of the SUV and
she tripped on a piece of metal sticking out above the wheel well. She fell to
the ground and her knees looked as red as a tomato. Her brother began laughing
at her and shouting taunts and things of the sort.
She walked over to her dad and
asked for the first aid kit. He scratches his head and says, I forgot it. He
then began unpacking their things from the car. Sally stormed away from the two
fools and sat down under a very tall tree a fair distance away, clutching her
shins. As soon as she sat down, an apple fell straight down on her head. A
clear bump began to form on the top of her head.
Sally was unhappy about this but
this wasn’t the least of her worries. She needed a new tampon. She rushed to
the SUV and began frantically looking for her big green backpack. It wasn’t
there.
Thanks a lot for this post, it has been really helpful since English is not my native language.
I’m on the fence with Ben; he’s neither excited nor
displeased with the software.
Correct, except what is he if neither of those?
Nonplussed?!
How about this sentence “I neither want to get hurt nor lose you.” ? Is it correct? 🙂
Yep!
How about replacing “either” at the end of sentence like:
Bring no guns nor knives, neither.
“Bring no guns,” on it’s own doesn’t sound right to me. “Do not bring guns,” is what I would say. Or, “Bring neither guns nor knives.” no/nor/neither is overkill.
Is neither…nor singular or plural? In other words, which is correct:
Neither Jim nor his friend are going to the party.
Neither Jim nor his friend is going to the party.
I think your first example is correct. “Neither Jim nor his friend are going to the party.” The word neither can be paired with nor in a sentence but it can never be paired with or. The word either means one or the other but not both.
How do you agree with someone using “me neither or me either”? What is the difference?
Good question, Kimberly! Here’s the full explanation: http://public.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/meeither.html
In short, most of the time, go with “Me nether.”
Merry Christmas darling! You get to spend a week alone with your insane grandparents and adolescent brother at the Griswold family cabin, good luck! That is what it sounded like when my parents told me they wanted a week of alone time over Christmas. They left yesterday and I am already losing my mind. In the single night I have already been forced to explain what GPS stood for and that it is neither Grand-Parent Survival kit nor Government Persuading Surveillance. After several attempts to pry it open to find the kit and trying to find the camera because of some ‘hold-up from all of those years back’ they realized we were present in the vehicle. They shared a shaky smile and started driving.
After two hours of my brother’s screaming that he wants to eat or a Ferrari for his birthday I punched him in the shoulder. That shut him up but the Grand Parents starting scaring me. They began giving advice on how to throw a good punch.
“Now sweetie, when attacking someone who is weaker then you anywhere is fine to hit. I prefer the jugular myself but f you find the shoulder is adequate that is fine,” Then my Grandma showed what she meant by punching my brother’s stuffed animal in the face, The head ripped off.
This shut both my brother and I up, we just witnessed an act of a crazy woman that we would be forced to spend the next six days with. Then I remembered something my Parents had said before they left, ‘Either you listen to them or you are grounded’. I was thinking about taking the latter and running away from this freak show and go home.
(Did I use Neither and either correctly? Thank you for the great post!)
(Correct the sentences)
*Either of the three will do.
*Neither of them,strong though they seem to be,were able lift the Wright.
*He is fond of vegetable.
*He gave me goodbye.
*I am accustomed with hot weather.
*The book is belonged to me.
*Today’s climate is very dry.
*He spoke a lie and said me a liar.
*We write by pen.
*Always speak truth.
*My brother is M.A.
*Can you tell me what is a camel?
*He gone false witness.
*English is not easy to be learnt.
The man has resigned from the poor.
The boy is imaginary by nature.
Neither I asked nor he told me where I’m going
Liz, it’s a pleasure to join this discussion and so, here’s my question. I thought upon this sentence while collecting plastic litter from a beach in NE Spain, and I’m thinking of carrying out a campaign using it…’You no longer need it, our beaches either’…Would that be correct? I know, from teaching experience and, what you’ve written here so well, as having to ‘pair up’ ‘either’ with ‘or’, being a correlative conjunction and all, but….? Thank you for your help!
Neither the Republicans nor the Democrats could put Humpty Dumpty together again.
“MAX is neither inwarding material from godown nor
giving any confirmation nor even entertaining our mails and calls.”
Is this correct sentence. use of neither – nor.
Thank you! This article was helpful. I never knew neither and nor, and either and or were linked together.
Grasslike herbs have sprouted bumpily on our stonen islet as a gigantic, maroon fur garment of a gray colossus. Across icy, blue waters snowy lands laid upon the sea-line. Everything was going pretty well for a family trip. To be taken away from Uncle John’s cozy music studio and brought into freezing wildernesses to die frozen like a prehistoric iceman wasn’t exactly my favorite vacation concept. ”Lets shake this wasteland!” I told Uncle John and uncased the portable DJ equipment. Grandma was not very fond of thug life beats so I chose 60’s love songs instead. Either the music mingled some loving chemistry in the air, or it was mating time; since a whopping polar bear sprang up from the sea and began to couple with Dad’s boat. We kinda got that Animal Planet feeling and started recording the wild sighting. After a while both lovers left floating away with all our food, tents and gears. We almost froze to death for 12 hours before a fishing boat rescue us. Nowadays, I can eye neither antarctic tundra landscapes nor horny polar bears otherwise I start to tremble uncontrollably.
Hey Cauê Moraes, for the most part I liked it; but the very first sentence was a bit hard to grasp/ imagine as well as the last sentence. I think maybe you should have used a preceding negative and either and or; only because I don’t think it’s grammatically correct to use “eye” like that (as a verb). Maybe you should have used “look at” instead.
Hey Dina, really thanks for the reply. I really traveled on ideas at that first sentence xDDD. I looked at the dictionary and eye can be used as a verb. Thanks again for the reply and a hug xDDD.
I like your description of “both lovers” in describing the polar bear and the boat floating off together. Clever.
The Arctic Tundra!
Really.
I felt a shiver rake through my body. I heard that Ucratsians got wrinkles and that awful droopy skin from frowning and I had promised myself that I’d try to smile or at least not pout; but Here! In this desolate and freezing terrain where not even the poor excuses for vegetation or the sun seemed to want to be, I couldn’t help it. I was so sure. I wasn’t only frowning, I was scowling too. My sister put her hand around me, already, her bare hand seeming to conduct heat (from where I couldn’t phantom). I looked toward my mother, more certain than ever that I would hate her forever. Neither Tsarah nor my father could convince me differently this time. The lack of heat didn’t bother my mother as much. She wore some flowery dress and held her face in that intrigued and thoughtful manner towards the snow capped mountains. Sigh, when I was younger, about Illyanna’s age (The bony, timid, white blond creature that was wrapped in brown bear fur and playing in the black, chilled grainy earth just a few feet in front, that resembled my older sister far too much for my comfort); I had liked my mother’s frequent trips around Ucratsia and even crossing non-Ucratsian borders, all for the sake of art. I had liked drawing all the different landscapes with her. But I had grown up and the arctic was no place for a grown Mouralian ( half- Mouralian). Why couldn’t we stay in Cannolia where it was hot all year round. Why did she have to drag is here on a whim, to some cold, desolute… tundra! While we stood out like prey for wild, uncivilised Relic, just waiting for the mentally deficient or plain silly ( like my mother) to drag her children on some camping trip, that was neither as fun nor as educational as my father had said when I first complained; to be either drained till our fiery hearts stopped beating or worse, used to light their homes.
You will have neither coffee neither tea Ms. Baker? Wow, it seems like you are losing weight. Well with all of those oranges falling off of the tree now that the season is bursting with rain and sunshine you will be healthier than a horse!
What if instead of “neither” you do use a different negative, but would still like to use “nor”, does that work?
I.e.: “He does not have time to go to school, nor is able to accomplish simple everyday tasks.”
Neither will go to the movies without my permission or I would be mad if one did
Either will go to the movies without my permission, nor I would be mad if both did
Rules of grammar are always exceptionally overruled, to be perfectly correct.
You could either say; “I don’t like cats either.”, or;
“Neither do I.”.
What should be used in the following: (neither/nor)
“I am not taking tea.”
“(NEITHER/NOR?) am I.”
TIA
Is my sentence correct : I guess it’s up to me either to speak or send you to hell.
My question is, in this sentence: “Jay had not seen either the snake or the wasp’s nest on the next tree, and was preparing to stake his tarp in that less-than-safe location,” why do we even need “either”? If you remove it, it doesn’t change the meaning, so it seems superfluous.
The trip was a bad idea. I’d known this the moment I’d opened my eyes that morning, and my stomach seemed to be missing.
I was sick as a dog. The nausea was otherworldly, evil, and seemed sent straight from the bowels of hell specifically to torture me the morning of the camping trip. I didn’t want to get out of bed, let alone get in a van for hours of jostling around the mountains. But I’d spent so long planning it with my girl scout troupe, I hated to let them down. I was one of the older girls with more responsibilities. I’d have to ignore the new construction of purgatory going on inside and soldier on.
I took along several remedies, but nothing worked. I either felt like throwing up till I turned inside-out, or stabbing myself to distract from the wicked, wicked pain. I cursed my doctor for talking me into taking birth control, as it didn’t seem to be preventing what I had decided was the imminent birth of the Antichrist.
We finally made it to the camping ground, where I was soon to curse another doctor. One of the dads in the troupe always volunteered to come along and render his services as an ER physician in case someone fell and broke a leg or something. In my now dazed mind, he was to be my salvation. Surely he’d have pepto-bismol, or Dramamine, or, hell, I’d have happily taken poison at that point. He’d have wonderful, wonderful drugs to bestow upon me, I just knew it.
Turns out, he only had one drug for nausea. Phenergan, which works great for nausea.
But as he explained more, and that he could get his wife to “help” me take it, my hope boiled away in the heat of my nausea-soaked anger.
He only had it in suppository form.
Now, I might have been ready to jump off the mountain side to cure the stomach-ache of the century, but I was a teenager, and there was no way in hell I was going to let anyone stick anything up my ass! They wouldn’t let me do it myself, as a “minor”. It was either them or no one.
“Well, I’ll just die then,” I said. “Out here in the wilderness, there is neither drugstore nor urgent care!”
I had a choice-either the soon-to-be-born Antichrist, or a suppository that an adult had to push into me while I bent over in humiliation.
Needless to say, I chose the Antichrist. He’ll be seventeen today.
Please is this correct: either A, B or C? What is the correct form? Thanks.
They just arrived to the coral reef in their submarine. They thought it would be an inventive family vacation, ‘one for the books!’ as Pa said. But they soon realized they would rather be on either the beach or the top of the Pyrenees… literally anywhere but under the damn sea. Twin ten year olds stuck with their parents cooped up in a submarine pod… You know, I don’t really know why they thought it would be a good idea in the first place. In all honesty, in no way, shape, or form would I ever want to be cooped up with two ten year olds, even if they were my own. And especially these ones. Kitty and Pup, as they were called (although not named… their original names were Catherine and Philip, which shorten to Cat and Pip, so you can see where Ma and Pa were like oh dang that’s cute, let’s call them Kitty and Pup!) may be the wildest ten year old pair you could ever meet. I’ve neither met nor heard of children as wild as these animals. Nor have I heard of animals as wild as these children.
Kitty and Pup liked to put salt in the sugar container. Kitty and Pup enjoyed turning the bass off of the stereo system, so you felt like something was wrong, but couldn’t quite pinpoint what. Kitty and Pup had fun hiding in the mornings so their parents couldn’t find them when it was time to go to school. They even tried switching classes once as each other, but as Kitty is a girl and Pup is a boy, that scheme did not work out quite as well.
So imagine the havoc Kitty and Pup could wreak down by the coral reef. Ma and Pa, two unseemly entrepreneurs of wealth, rented out the submarine for the family vacation, thinking it would broaden the horizons of the young twins’ minds. It would open them up to worlds they could neither have seen nor imagined elsewhere. But Kitty and Pup had other ideas. Kitty and Pup imagined schemes of opening the doors and windows to flood their habitation, messing with the buttons and switches of the sub, minimizing oxygen for just a moment. They achieved their schemes. Pa was never able to put the trip in the books.
I was captivated by the antics of this pair. My eyes eagerly raced ahead to see what havoc K & P unleashed next. Good job.
I had neither the experience nor the wisdom at Beltane to avoid going into the woods with my lover who had been drinking too much; that is how I ended up with puke near my head during lovemaking.
Hi, are these two correct?
“You may choose either one or neither one of them.”
“You may choose either one or both.”
Neither capitalism/consumerism nor socialism/communism, I do prefer justice and equity.
Sarah wasn’t neither pleased nor happy to be in the Artic tundra.
Jackson you either choose the cake or the cookie, but not both, son.
You already have a “not” earlier in the sentence (in the form of “wasn’t”) so you wouldn’t say “neither”. You can choose between:
Sarah was neither pleased nor happy to be in the Arctic tundra.
OR
Sarah wasn’t pleased or happy to be in the Arctic tundra.
You only need one negative in your sentence. Also, careful with spelling Arctic! It has two c’s.
The second example is pretty good, although I probably wouldn’t say both “Jackson” and “son” in the same sentence, since they both identify the same person.
Thanks. English is not my mother tongue, so is kind of difficult to me to get all the grammar right!
No problem! It can be tough for us native speakers too, happy to give advice on it 🙂
I’m glad to know that is not just me. Again, thanks!
Can I say : ““You don´t disappoint me neither does deserve living without love” ? If not, which would be the best construction in that case ?
You already have a “not” earlier in the sentence (in the form of “don’t”) so you wouldn’t say “neither”. You can choose between:
You don’t disappoint me or deserve living without love.
OR
You neither disappoint me nor deserve living without love.
There is also an option not addressed in the article, where you use “nor” without “neither” to begin a new clause or sentence. I’m not sure if it’s technically correct but it’s fairly common:
You don’t disappont me, nor do you deserve living without love.
Notice the second part repeats the subject (you) and the verb (do), making it a complete clause. The earlier examples only stated the subject in the beginning, and the “or” and “nor” were just connecting objects in single clauses, in which case we follow the rule that this article told us about.
I didn’t go to school neither Monday nor Tuesday.
You already have a “not” earlier in the sentence (in the form of “didn’t) so you wouldn’t say “neither”. Choose between:
I didn’t go to school on either Monday or Tuesday.
OR
I went to school on neither Monday nor Tuesday.
You only need one negative in the sentence.
She does not neither like James nor Andrew.
She either take Kiwi or grapes as her dessert dish.
Is it correct?
You don’t need to (and should not) say “neither” when you have already used “not” earlier in the sentence. It would be either:
She does not like James or Andrew.
OR
She does not like either James or Andrew.
OR
She likes neither James nor Andrew.
In my opinion the first and last sound better than the middle option, but it’s your choice.
Your second sentence is correct except for the verb conjugation for “take” and your capitalization – it would be “She either takes kiwi or grapes as her dessert dish”. Unless Kiwi is the name of someone you’ve cooked for dessert 🙂
I think your second sentence is good but the first one is wrong; instead of “She does not neither like James nor Andrew” it should be: “She does neither like James nor Andrew” since you can’t put a negation before “neither”.
Oops, sorry! Didn’t saw that someone has already answered your question… ^^’
What is the rule that describes the use of “or” in this sentence?
“Do you want strawberry or grape jelly?”
Use neither..nor: He won’t show me his papers or tell me who he is.
Can ‘Neither does he show me his papers nor tell me who he is’ be considered correct?
I had a choice to go either to the Arctic tundra to not watch penguins but rather to watch ice or to the African savanna to peer out my window at creatures that wished to eat me, so instead I decided to open Netflix and watch the hilarity of another Griswold family misadventure and eat a bowl of popcorn while comfortably lounging on my couch.
Which word should be used in the following example, either or neither?
Mr. A: “I don’t like this job.”
Mr. B: “I don’t like this job neither.”
or
“I don’t like this job either”
Hum… Good question. I personally think it is “I don’t like this job either” since they are both agreeing about their job.
A few days ago, my friend, Frank invited me and a few of his co-workers on a camping trip. The thought of escaping the stress of work and school was an opportunity I could not pass up. The camping site is what you would expect luscious green leaves, tall strong trees, and a dusty trail so visitors do not get lost. Everything seemed great besides those pesky, annoying bugs. The bugs would not stop gnawing at my ankles and shoulders and everywhere in between. Neither bug spray, nor did the bug equipment Frank bought proved to be advantageous. At this point I had two options, either leave the trip at least one day early, or tough it though with everyone else. Contemplating, the answer arrived at leaving one day early. Everyone understood my choice and decided next time to get a less populated spot.
Thank you for anyone reading and willing to reply
Hello Liz. Thank you for your post; it was very objective. I do have a question concerning the verb agreement using neither/nor. Which one is correct; neither I nor Maria KNOWS about the news or neither I nor Maria KNOW about the news. Thank you.
Max and Kevin were planing to light up a firecamp with some good food in the forest, but neither of them thought it was so easy to burn marshmallows, nor that it will bring some unwanted guests.
Armonithy, Zoey and Sasha heard screams deriving from the forest, but they didn’t knew if it was either animals shouting or human’s ones.
Is it correctly used? (If not, how should it be like?)
I have always loved African savannah… neither did I know about the pythons nor the cheetahs!
neither I authorize nor nominate her to act on my behalf
Carol and Robert got married 2 days ago. Robert had the wonderful idea of having an original honeymoon by spending the weekend in the forest. Carol seems neither agrees nor disagrees the idea. the weekend arrives and the excitement of being alone for 3 days was enough to set the mood. Love was on the air. The time was going by, the weather becomes hot and humid, the sweat was a disgusting thing for Carol, so she starts to feel uncomfortable and upset about it. Robert was not concerned at all, he was happy to see the nature, either distracted or thinking that she well be fine eventually.
thank you for the feedback
Can we use either / or to compare three Instances? For eg “I will travel to either Italy or Germany or Spain”. Or the usage is limited to just two instances?
Which sentence is correct?
He will travel to either Paris or Rome
He will travel either to Paris or to Rome
John was in his tent, either sleeping or trying to muster the strength to face the new day. The rest of us were heading out for a hike. Neither Sam nor I had packed a snack.
Hi, is this sentence ok?
referring to something that took place in the past.
“This wasn’t the first time nor the last”
Hey! I found your article to be very useful, but I do have a question- I might as well add I´m not a native speaker.
Is it correct to say “shouldn’t be right nor even legal” ? Or should I say “Should neither be right nor legal” or “shouldn’t be either right or legal”?
I recently spent the past weekend camping with my friends Elizabeth, Alex, and Tori. Both Elizabeth and I love the outdoors. However, neither Alex nor Tori we’re excited about the idea of sleeping outside. They both complained the entire time. The second we reached our campsite, Tori began her antics. Being the drama queen that we love, she immediately screamed, “Either take me to a hotel or let me die!” Needless to say, I will never bring those two camping with me ever again.
He has not played cricket nor hockey.
What is the correct form:
1. He has neither played cricket nor hockey
2. He has not played cricket or hockey.
Neither my son is old enough to go to a public nursery school nor we have enough income to send him to a private nursery school.
The parts of this sentence are not parallel in meaning. Coordinate them fully by making them parallel in form. Mind punctuation.
Either we must make nuclear power safe or stop using it.
Hi could you please help me with this question to choose the suitable answer:
“You cannot play __________ eat when you enter the library.
The answers are:
A. or B. nor C. either D. neither
B. nor
If ‘nor’ is the correct answer in this situation, then it must also be correct in my sentence?:
“Peering into the darkness of the forest, not a single animal stirred nor made a sound.”
Or. Not nor.
‘or’ should be used, not ‘nor’ – “You cannot play or eat…” .
If you DO want to use ‘nor’ you’ll have to have it with ‘neither’, as in: “You can neither play nor eat….”
There were about a million things I would rather be doing than camping in the creepy forest on the outskirts of town. I had voiced my objections to the trip both loudly and vehemently; but as always neither Allie nor Jess listened. So here we were, alone in the woods where every snapped twig sounded like either a murderer or a giant bear about to eat us.
I like it,i had so many problems,with these two words,now I got it
Either Al goes to see his sick sister or she might dies before he sees her.
?
Correct use of either/or! Instead of dies it should be die. Great work!
Thank you Liz for the article on “Either/Or, Neither/Nor” Either I had never learned this or had forgotten it along the way, because I was neither following it nor understanding the distinction. <3
Nice!
Is this the proper way to write this sentence?
“Peering into the darkness of the forest, not a single animal stirred nor made a sound.”
There should be an ‘or’ not ‘nor’ since there is no use of ‘neither’. Also who is peering? Is it the animals? In that case the sentence is fine (with an OR not NOR). If it is someone else then you’d need to mention him/her/them. Let’s see two constructs, one where the animals themselves are the subjects and one where they aren’t:
1. The eerie screech emanated from far off and was followed by silence. The animals were frightened. Peering into the darkness of the forest not a single animal stirred or made a sound.
2. Snow White shivered. The eerie screech emanated from far off and was followed by silence. Peering into the darkness of the forest SHE NOTED not a single animal stirred OR made a sound.
Jay had never known true fear before. He also had never been chased by a bear before. But it was at this very moment that both those ideas had come together so well in his mind. Jay was typically known for his calm and cool demeanor. He neither exhibited random bursts of emotion, nor did another’s emotions ever trouble him. But right now, he was screaming like a little girl and justifiably so. He could hear its roars behind him as he zig zagged through the forest. The thud of its paws slamming into the ground rang out in concert with the beast’s heavy breathing.
He was trying to run up higher ground knowing that he might be a little more nimble than the bear. The moist leaf litter and soft soil, the result of recent rain, was slowing him down. Although he had a head start on his furry friend, it wasn’t more than twenty yards behind him and closing fast.
Jay kept running until he came onto a large rocky cleft sticking out of the earth. It looked like a mini cliff about fifteen feet high and he quickly surmised that by the time he could make it around it, the bear would be on top of him. He turned around to face his demise approaching him. He was limited in options. He could either try to fight the bear, or try to play dead. Neither of those options seemed to appeal to him.
He looked around desperately to see if there was a stick or anything that could be of use. It was then that he spotted a tree on his left and without much further thought he dashed toward it and started climbing it.
John and Marlene were either dehydrated or suffering from heat stroke. They neither packed neither sun screen nor water that morning when setting out from camp at first light. Neither John nor Marlene fathomed at the beginning of this trip that it could be their last. Determined, they would either find their way back to camp or die trying.
I’m certainly happy to join you on this program, neither will I stop and nor will I be distract.
Trying to explain to a non-native English speaking developer the negative + or usage, specifically “Failed to connect to X or reconnect to Y.” He is afraid that this might be misunderstood as saying that the system successfully connected to X but not to Y or vice versa. To me it’s clear that both connection attempts failed. Of I’d break it into more sentences but I have to jam it into a strict line length limitation.
neither i got good marks nor appreciation from my english teacher ..
Hey guys! I would LOVE some feedback, I’m really striving to become a stronger writer. Please tear this apart. 😉
My footsteps staggered to a halt, causing Lindsey to bump into my back. She
started grumbling, but I couldn’t force myself to keep walking, or offer an
apology. Either I was hallucinating, or something had demolished our camp site.
The lid of my brand new ultra durable cooler was ripped off its hinges, its
final resting place several yards from the cooler itself. Food had been thrown
around like confetti – Oreo cookies, Lindsey’s vanilla wafers, and potato chip
shards littered the grass, and their wrappers hung over our sleeping bags and
sitting logs like streamers.
“Neither you nor I authorized a rave party/food fight with the littles, right?” Lindsey asked, voice
breathless as she peered over my shoulder.
She was talking about Carlton and Shelby, the two five year-olds we’d left with Mike
before we walked to the lake half an hour ago. Mike and the kids were nowhere
in sight.
“Mike!” I screamed, finally stumbling forwards. “Shelby? Carlton?”
“Look at these claw marks,” Lindsey whispered. Deep gashes marred the dirt in
several places, and had even sliced through one of our log-benches.
My heart pounded as beads of sweat dripped into my eyes. “We’ve got to find the
kids,” I said, stepping across the crunchy remains of our food-stash. If
anything had happened to them, their parents would kill me. If I didn’t kill myself first. Tears
were springing to my eyes, either because the sweat really stung, or because I
was imagining their wide, mischievous eyes sparkling up at me from
puffy-cheeked, sugary sweet faces. If anything had happened to them… I turned
to Lindsey and saw her face was already streaked with a few tears, even if she
was snuffling, trying to quell them.
A sharp crack came from the woods behind me, and I jumped like I’d been jabbed with a
taser. I whirled, the hairs on my arms already standing ram-rod straight like soldiers
saluting their general. Did I mention I’m basically a major wuss? My eyes dashed
across the tree line, seeing nothing, but I was exceptionally convinced a
hulking black bear was about to leap out from the woods and rip my guts out.
Neither Lindsey nor I made a sound, until two little shapes burst from the
woods, charging straight for us. Then we both screamed like little girls.
After I had screamed for a minute straight, and little chubby hands were tugging on my
shirt, my terror finally abated. Colton and Shelby were laughing like I was the world’s best episode of Spongebob Squarepants. Either they hadn’t seen the wreckage behind me, or they didn’t care.
“Mike showed us how to track deer!” they screeched. I looked up at Mike and saw
that he, for one, did see our destroyed campsite. His face had gone as pale as a sheet.
Nicely written. I liked the drama a LOT! 🙂
A few corrections –
1. Too many commas and incorrectly used. I see you’ve tended to use them in places one would pause in speech. But writing isn’t speech :).
The first few sentences should be:
‘My footsteps staggered to a halt causing Lindsey to bump into my back. She started grumbling but I could neither force myself to keep walking nor offer an apology. Either I was hallucinating or something had demolished our camp site.’
2. A comma and an ‘and’ never go together. So we get:
‘Food had been thrown around like confetti – Oreo cookies, Lindsey’s vanilla wafers, and potato chip shards littered the grass. Their wrappers hung over our ….’
3. Although I understand you meant to refer to logs meant for sitting, ‘sitting log’ isn’t an actual term. Simply use ‘log’:
So the sentence becomes:
‘Their wrappers hung over our sleeping bags and logs like streamers.’
However even this isn’t right as ‘our’ would need to apply to all items in the remainder of the sentence. So while ‘our sleeping bags’ is OK, surely you don’t mean to say ‘our logs’?
4. While ‘neither you nor I’ is grammatically correct, the preferred form is simply ‘neither of us’ – but I suppose the pressures of the assignment forced you use the neither/not combination here :)!
5. A person gets breathless, not his voice.
6. A person asks breathlessly, not breathless.
So the next sentence now becomes:
‘ “Neither of us authorized a rave party/food fight with the littles, right?” Lindsey asked breathlessly as she peered over my shoulder.’
7. ‘If I didn’t kill myself first’ is not a complete sentence. Also two ifs in a sentence, I’m pretty certain, is incorrect.
So this part:
‘If anything had happened to them, their parents would kill me. If I didn’t kill myself first.’
Can either be:
‘If anything had happened to them their parents would kill me.’
Or:
‘Their parents would kill me if I didn’t kill myself first.’
8. All parts of a sentence need the same construct. So:
‘Tears were springing to my eyes, either because the sweat really stung, or because…’
Ought to be:
‘Tears sprung INto my eyes, either because the sweat really stung or because …..’
Or:
‘Tears were springing INto my eyes, either because the sweat was really stinging, or because…’
(I’d go with the former)
9. Now this is the tough part (I need help too!) – how does one differentiate between the first person actually speaking something in the story (clearly this ought to be within quotes ” ” ) and the first person thinking something without describing his thought? As you do here –
‘If anything had happened to them… (<= thinking) I turned to Lindsey and saw her face was already streaked with a few tears (<=describing in first person)'
I've seen some books where the former is simply italicised. You may want to post this bit separately to ask for more help.
10. A person sees. His eyes don't see. His eyes can scan/spot/land on…you get the drift.
So this sentence:
'My eyes dashed across the tree line, seeing nothing, but I was exceptionally…'
Becomes:
'My eyes dashed across the tree line, SPOTTING nothing, YET I was exceptionally…'
11. Animals/people charge AT not FOR.
'Neither Lindsey nor I made a sound, until two little shapes burst from the
woods, charging straight AT us.'
12. "we both" is an incorrect usage. 'Then we both screamed like little girls.'
You can either state "Lindsey and I screamed like little girls' or just 'We screamed like little girls.'
Why just 'We'? Because the previous sentence already establishes that "us" is the protagonist and Lindsey.
Also the 'Then' at the beginning of the sentence is redundant. You have described a previous action. The next action obviously occurred 'later' or 'then'.
13. 'Colton and Shelby were laughing like I was the world's best episode of Spongebob Squarepants.'
Wrong usage of 'I' – how can the protagonist or 'I' be an episode all by himself?
Hope this helps. Your narrative was interesting. Keep at it. And don't worry too much about the count of errors here – trust me, there are professional articles that get corrected a LOT more than that. Just keep at it and do continue to get your readers to comment! All the best! 🙂
Which is correct – Neither of them are planning to go/neither of them is planning to go. I’m finding both are accepted but which is technically correct? Thanks for help!
It should be “is”. Thanks for posting, as until I really thought why, I hadn’t realised I often use the erroneous “are” myself! Now here’s why “is” is right:
Let us consider another sentence using “either”:
“Either of them can play”. Means either ONE and not BOTH can play. “Either” always stands for ONE. Consequently “Neither” also stands for ONE, just in negation.
Thus, we get “neither is” and not “neither are”.
Marlene jumped! She was certain something had swished past her leg. She searched for a light but found herself fumbling in the darkness. She thought she heard a faint hissing sound. Either her worst fears had just come true and there was an animal in her tent or it was just Flint playing a prank! She could neither summon the strength nor the courage to confront the creature before her. Oh god, how she wished it was just Flint!
“URGH!”, screamed Chloe as her palm came down on the side of her neck, in an attempt to swat another fly or bug or one of the fifty other species of flying bugs she had encountered on this awful hike. Max turned to look back at Chloe for a moment, shook his head with a sigh and continued onwards. Just push through it goddamnit!, thought Max to himself. They were lost, he knew it, got off course hiking to their camping site. But they were here for Helen who had been looking forward to visiting the African Savannas since the divorce. And Chloe’s frustrated mumbling and brief outbursts were neither helpful nor productive. This trip was turning out ot be much worse than both Max and Chloe had imagined but they had to put their feelings aside and be the support system that Helen needed at this time.
“Pull yourself together man!”, Max whispered to Chloe.
“..You pull yourself together”, muttered Chloe as she stopped to straighten the straps of her backpack. She was sweating profusely and her patience was wearing thin. She longed for her warm bed in her cozy aparatment by the Bay. She glanced at Helen up ahead, eagerly leading the pack and felt a twinge. She sighed, Max was right, she needed to either pull herself together or risk ruining this trip for Helen.
When we’re born, who chooses our paths in life? Well, sometimes we do but other times those paths are chosen for us. The wise and strong know there is a fundamental difference, but are nonetheless totally focused on the task rather than who made the call.
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I studied either grammar or writing lessons. I am studying neither grammar nor writing lesson today. I haven’t studied either any grammar or any writting lesson yet. I was studying both grammar and writing lessons.
Neither I nor my brother went to visit each other.
Either my brother or I go to visit each other.
Correct?
The second sentence is off. I think what you mean for it to read as is: “I haven’t studied either a grammar or writing lesson yet.”
Thanks
It started with just a light rain. As the drops fell from heaven the family sensed that the trip might soon get more interesting. Interesting in a bad way – like when the police officer is trying to figure out how the semi truck ended up sticking out of the second floor of the office building.
A little rain might not seem so bad. The family did not think so either. They donned their sweatshirts and hats before setting out. Neither experience nor forward thinking led them to understand what rain in the desert would mean.
The family lived in the heart of the city. Frank, the father and Rosanne his wife pretended to like hiking because their son Frank Jr. would not shut up about it. Their daughter knew that neither Frank nor Rosanne could tolerate lettuce on a ham sandwich, much less venturing out into the wilderness and woods for a stroll. It caused her no end of delight to watch her parents pretend to enjoy something they were terrible at so that her brother might have a chance of kicking his addiction.
Frank led his family on this adventure to get Frank Jr. out of the house and away from the pernicious influences of the city. He was certain that a 3 mile walk through the nearby National Park would bring cleansing to his only son and provide perspective and character and all those other great things that are either too difficult to live out or too complex to understand in a 30 minute sitcom.
Unfortunately for Frank and his family, the cleansing that occurs when walking through a wadi in the desert during a rainstorm is of a much different variety. No one saw the rushing wall of water and no one remained standing after its appearance.
Ever the practical kind of family, each member thrust their right arm high out of the water to keep their brand-new iPhone 6s free from disaster and tried to keep their head above water with the other arm. Frank saw Frank Jr. struggling to keep his iPhone aloft and offered to assist. Frank Jr. thought his father was going to help him swim which resulted in sinking both of them further. Rosanne led the soggy caravan of family members faster and faster down the wadi. When they reached the bottom of the canyon they had hiked up, she grasped the keys in her hand and unlocked the doors to their minivan.
This did nothing to stop their swift descent past the van, but it would be very convenient to have been able to walk right up and open the doors to their car, if it had.
Meg realized that either her father or brother would drown one another and her mother had only ever done swim-aerobics in the water, so it was up to her to save the family. She positioned herself in what she assumed was a very bobsledlike, hydrodynamic position and quickly slid past her family. Catching sight of a tree that was dipping down into the water, Meg knew that the only way to make contact with it would be to sacrifice her phone to the water depths of her pocket.
Slipping the water-resistant smartphone into water-proof territory, Meg angled herself directly for the tree. She snatched onto a sturdy branch and turned just in time to grab onto her mom’s phone-arm. Meg had to use all of her strength to pull her mom close enough to grab onto a branch, but she knew that her mother would either have to let go of her phone or continue her journey to the ocean. They locked eyes for a very meaningful moment. “Didn’t (blub blub) insurance (blub blub) father is (blub blub) cheap.” Rosanne realized that she was ill-equipped to continue their maritime adventure and so dropped the phone to secure a hand-hold.
Frank and Frank Jr. had actually started fighting one another because of their close proximity and fear of drowning. As they floated into their matriarch they both grabbed onto her and put her into separate choke holds and arm-bars until she tapped out.
As they pulled themselves up onto the shore, Rosanne knew that they would not make it back to the car before the locks re-engaged; she would have to push the button on the dongle again.
Ashley would walk neither in water nor on the rocks; she sat down, and waited for our return. We walked down to the lake. Jordan would could not choose between either the rocks or the sand, so he chose to put his feet in the water.
(Sorry it wasn’t very disastrous)
Can we use future tense after neither…nor?
Example: Neither the crew members nor the manager WILL OPEN their register to refund your money for that half eaten hamburger. (Is this sentences correct?) Thank you!
Yes, that’s correct.
Seriously, A word that modifies a verb is an adverb. The author said, “I hate to break it to you, but you’re doing it wrong.” In this sentence, wrong modifies the verb doing. The adverbial form of wrong is wrongly. This sentence wrongly used wrong. The presentation of this author must be suspect.
The family camping trip was catastrophique. The company that booked us for this trip was definitely unorganised,everything wasnt under control and it wasnt safe. This is the last time we will book neither for the African savanna nor the arctic. All the member of my family wishes if we were in Europe or north America instead.
Neither Sam nor Jay were aware of the tiger lurking in the bushes next to them. The majestic beast was aware of the incoming prey and neither it was ready nor it had expected what was in the bag for it. Sam was carrying a .416 rifle which was capable of decimating the tiger without even a single hiccup. The tiger sensing the approaching prey prowled and got ready to charge, as soon as it charged Sam with his superhuman reflexes and extreme precision aimed down the sight of his rifle and shot one round into the tigers head. Adrenaline was pumping in Sam’s body and he didn’t realize at the moment that tragedy struck,the bullet had passed cleanly through the head of the tiger but couldn’t subdue the inertial force of it’s charge resulting in the tiger mauling Jay’s chest.
nice
What is correct “The total biomass seems to be unaffected either by attenuation or enhancement of UV-B radiation,” or “The total biomass seems to be unaffected neither by attenuation nor enhancement of UV-B radiation,”?
Maria had the camping trip with family in africa. They had two choices for decideding the place, either savanna or Arctic tundra.
Lauren wretched over the side of the makeshift tree hut. She had been ill for two days now from eating the wrong of berries. The safari in southern Africa turned dangerous quickly. Her husband John and she had planned for months the trip of a lifetime, and now it was neither likely they would make it home nor was it a sure thing they would survive. A war had broken out between Namibia, where they were on safari, and the Bushmen of South Africa. They hadn’t seen it coming. They knew the war was going on but the turn of events brought it right to their location.
The guide with them pulled John to the side, his thick accent punctuated the urgency of the matter at hand “Either we get out of here now, before it gets worse, or we die here.” “She’s too sick, if we try to move she’ll be dead weight. It’s a 15 mile walk. I don’t know that we can carry her that far” said John. Lauren spoke up from the floor of the hut “I’ll walk as far as I can. We will just have to make a blind if I can’t make it all the way. You two can go ahead and get help if it comes to that.” Just as she mustered up the strength to sit up an explosion erupted at the base of the tree, sending the rickety tree hut flying in pieces through the air.
Is ‘neither’ only used when discussing TWO items? For instance, if I am speaking for three people is it correct to say “Neither of us heard the phone ringing”?
Can “neither” be used independently?
What about this example:
I want to express the purpose of not doing two things for ex. swimming and eating ice cream.
How I can use neither … nor in this case?
I’m planning to neither eat ice-cream nor swim ?
We haven’t joined either a disastrous camping trip or a family camping trip.
We haven’t been to neither a disastrous camping trip nor a family camping trip.
IS THE USE OF ”NEITHER” RIGHT IN THE FOLLOWING:”SHE DID NOT GIVE ME THE BOOK. NEITHER SHE PUT IT IN MY BAG.”?
How about the use of “nor” following a negation other than “neither”?
I never fear man nor beast!
“neither i loved her nor i hated her” is it correct?
Just remember the two ‘N’s’ go together. Neither you nor I. Either you or I. And Nor is a negative like Neither. Either is an option like Or.
I have ever gone camping, so i neither can write about an experience nor how do i feel about camping trips.
Once upon a time, I with my friends decided to go on a trip to Havana, Cuba. As the day of departure came nearer, we were enthralled. No sooner we landed in Havana, we heard the bad news of one of our friend’s father’s demise. Neither he nor we expected this coming. So, we had to cancel the trip and came back for his father’s funeral.
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Can you please revise this phrase and let me know if it is correct:
A. THE TRIAL COURT ERRED IN RULING THAT THE STOP AND DETENTION OF THE DEFENDANT BY POLICE WAS CONSTITUTIONAL BECAUSE THERE WAS NEITHER REASONABLE SUSPICION NOR PROBABLE CAUSE TO JUSTIFY THE INVESTIGATORY STOP, OR A VALID VOLUNTARY CONSENT TO SEARCH THE CD CASE WHERE EVIDENCE WAS FOUND.
neither, nor, and or…..or
neither, nor, nor??
How about this example?
“The necklace itself had not been expensive, nor could he have afforded anything expensive, but he had thought that she would like it.”
Is ‘nor’ incorrect in this example?
Hi, Is it possible to use neither + VERB + nor ? For example, one of the beliefs is neither TO EAT meat nor fish. Thanks.
can infinitive be used after or
Laura sighed dramatically. Neither her mother nor her father had listened to a single word she’d said throughout this weekend. As a rather tempramental 13 year old she had no doubt in her mind that being surrounded by frogs, mosquitos, dodgy campfires and uncomfortable sleeping bags with her parents arguing over benevolant issues was as close to hell as she could imagine. Either she was losing her childhood wonder for the mundane aspects of life, or her parents were truly awful individuals for dragging her here.
A bum is a homeless person who neither travels from town to town nor seeks for jobs.
The dancing fire either enlightened the mood, or unveiled the mysterious shadows. The beauty of the fire neither helped nor changed the fact that Tom’s ex-girlfriend was invited by his brother Charlie. Neither marshmallows melting on a stick nor enigmatic camp stories could deviate Tom’s mind from his ex-girlfriend’s presence. He either wanted to have his eyes seared out like Polyphemus in the “Odyssey” or eaten alive by the nearest pack wolves rather than stay at this camp out. As of God had answered his internal whining, a ferocious pack of wolves pounced over the fire, but Tom was not so lucky. The wolves murdered Charlie and his ex-girlfriend before his brain signaled his eyes to blink. In a macabre situation, Tom did what he did best:run for his life. He neither bled tears nor felt sympathy for the rest of his unknown family as they were torn to shreds. Tom stopped running when he lost sight of the dancing camp fire; he neither has a minute nor a second to breathe before the wolves caught him. He got his wish; Tom was no longer at the camp out, but was inside the belly’s of either a dozen or so wolves in pocket-sized parcels of carrion.
Actually, I am really not interested in you, Neither I was nor I’ll.
Is it ok to use ‘because’ after either/or like:
Diamond was the wit, the brains, and had gotten her nickname for one of two reasons (nobody was sure where it came from). It was either because she collected all the money to split evenly after a ‘good day’ of tormenting others or because she just simply liked the phrase ‘wit as sharp as diamond’.
We were planning the family trip to the mountains. The problem was that neither my sister nor my brother wanted to go and my parents were mad. It supposed to be a great experience and my mom was so mad that told them either you are going to be behave or you are not going to have any permission for parties.
In our way to the forest , neither my mother nor my father were able to walk due to the hot weather.
“Trump’s not working in the interests of ordinary people, but nor are the corporate democrats.”
Is the above correct, or should nor be replaced with neither?
is this correct usage of the word either?
Now there are other people (who are called post-millennialists) who believe that somehow all of us
need to work a lot harder and we’ll be able to usher in the kingdom.
Well, I don’t believe that’s it either; we don’t bring in the kingdom.
Neither the breath-taking scenery nor the fresh air and brisk wind could cheer Tom up, for he was stuck with his least favourite cousin who was 5 years old and wouldn’t stop weeping, while everyone else was busy setting up tents.
There is no such thing as a perfect trip. Every year ,our family gathers to have a reunion. That year, we decided to go on a camping. Everyone were really excited, except for me, since Im not the type of person who is into outdoor activities. We prepared the necessary things.
It was a cold dark night and everybody were having fun. We ate lots of food.We even light a bon fire. Suddenly, I felt my stomach is grumbling. It is a camp site, so you are not supposed to expect an exquisite bathroom. I have no choice but to defacate on the bushes. It was really a disaster. We should have planned other activity for that year either going to savanna or less stressful vacation.I would neither choose to have a trip somwhere nor stay at the house.
I was taught different usage in university, namely that neither was paired with or, and a nor would follow for a third thing. For instance, one would write, “neither 1 or 2, nor 3, is the right number.” The idea being that, as soon as you use “neither”, you’ve made it clear that two things are in the negative or being excluded. It’s interesting to see that neither and nor are now said to always be partnered! Has anyone else seen the case made for “neither 1 or 2, nor 3…” used?
I neither got camping trip nor my friends. Inspite of my age 22 years old
we neither had matchsticks nor a lighter to light the fire
One weekend my friends and I went for a camping trip to Death Valley. It was a short trip. We passed through the beautiful mountains to get to our camp location. I was little surprised to see many camps set up in close proximity to each other. But, they had kept them together for security and safety reasons. By the time we had set up our camp, it was already dusk. Now, began the fun night. We ignited the fire, made sandwiches, sat around the fire and started singing. Neither there was any sound nor any light in that area. We were managing with the moonlight and the bonfire light. Then all of a sudden we heard a roaring sound and we felt it was a bear. We were scared and trembled. We rushed towards the car and locked ourselves inside it. We heard the roar again after a few seconds and paid close attention to direction from which it was coming. Either we could sit in the car for the whole night with fear or enjoy the bon fire and beautiful evening. After sitting in the car for some time, one courageous friend of mine dared to step outside of the car. What he found was really hilarious. We found it was not the roar rather the snoring of the dog sleeping beside our camp. This experience made our trip very memorable for all of us.
Is this correct; Bella Courtis is an artist. She does not pretend, either as a woman, or as an artist – she does not simulate consent of either moral, or artistic conventional categories.
Is there any reason of using ” the” after either ” neither ” or ” either”..is it an obligation? Or we can go with undefined nouns?
So a few years ago some friends and I decided to embark on an exiting new camping trip adventure! This was not like any camping trip we had ever been on before because we were going to sleep under the stars and not one shower would be had. There were neither bathrooms nor could you light a fire. You could either hang your food high up in a tree or lock your goods in a cooler so the bears do not get to your bacon and eggs breakfast.
“I am not encouraging, condoning nor condemning this behavior.” is a sentence I wrote using nor without neither. Is it correct or should I have used “or”?
Within 10 minutes of starting the hike, their layers of clothes, worn in anticipation of the predicted 30 degree weather, were damp with sweat from the heavy humidity. The girls were neither cool, as they’d hoped to be, nor happy. Damp clothes wouldn’t offer much warmth in the evening when the air turned cold, as it always did on these Michigan autumn days. Both knew the threat of frostbite, even this early in the season, was very real.
Late in last shoulder season, they camped atop Lone Pine Ridge predicting the weather in the low 50’s as it had been in the previous days. Neither of them expected a blizzard to blow in…nor had they bothered to check the weather before heading out. They would never forget the lessons learned that day.
Around 4 o’clock, as the sky greyed and the winds picked up, Anna, always on the lookout for threats, suspected the weather may be making a turn for the worst.
“We should probably turn back, Jen. These clouds look bad and we really aren’t prepared for anything worse than this.”
Jen laughed at her overly-cautious best friend’s worrisome scowl. “Don’t be a baby! We aren’t stopping. I’ve been waiting for this trip for months!”
Anna knew Jen would put up a fight. She always did. “Jen, you know how I feel about these things. We need to either turn around or stop right now so we can at least setup camp before whatever this is blows in.”
Neither myself nor my wife was happy about that camping trip at Arctic Tundra. It was truly a disaster, but I had nothing to do about it. It was either the camping trip or having my nosy sister-in-law at our house for that summer. I guess I got punished for being rude.
This happened some 4 years ago. We, a group of 12 adults and 5 toddlers, visited a wildlife resort at the Masinagudi jungles.
The resort was located at the mid of Mudumulai jungles. As the resort started nearing we realised that the place had neither any means of communication nor any connectivity to the outer world. It was as isolated as an island in the mid of an ocean. The only difference being that, in this case the ocean was a dense forest and the fish were the animals.
We reached around noon, had a delicious lunch and sat down to decide our plans for the evening. We had 2 plans, either we stay in the resort have a camp-fire or go for the night jungle safari. With majority opting for the night jungle safari, the safari plan was finalised. As the sun set our safari rides arrived. But, alongwith our rides also came the surprise. The ride was an open jeep with neither any roof nor any seat belts. We boarded the jeep, men with excitement on their faces and ladies with fear.
The ride began and the jeep ventured deeper into the jungle. Different cries of animals were heard, but none were seen. Then came the wild bison into picture, a huge herd infact. We could see their eyes gleam in the dark. The herd just gave us a blank look and started back their grazing. Neither were they bothered to stop grazing nor scared to run away. Next were the deer, which were less in number but they just bound away. The jeep was venturing deeper into the jungle. Suddenly it screeched to a halt. We saw a huge elephant ahead of our jeep. Either the elephant was angry or it just wanted some fun, for it started approaching our jeep. The jeep drivers quickly sensed trouble, reversed the jeeps and took us to other direction escaping from the elephant.
We returned to our rooms and started our return journey the next morning.
It still feels like yesterday the moment we realized that we were trapped in a valley. That is the reason why we have neither planned for ourselves nor recommended others to go to the African savanna for a family camping trip.
Well, neither… nor construction usually follows simple pattern Neither(…….) nor (…) + singular (is,goes, meets) , so a perfect sentence according to this is:
Neither Jack nor Sally IS sick. NOT: Neither Jack nor Sally ARE sick.
but if the second subject of the sentence is plural as PARENTS, PEOPLE then we give plural, for example:Neither Jack nor his parents are stupid.
This work can be done either by me or my friend.
or
Either my friend or I can do this work.
Which would you use in a sentence such as “I am not interested in being polite (n)or heterosexual”?
This is entirely a fictional story.
The journey started when we packed up our car and hit the road. Neither my fiance nor my best friend was prepared for the journey that lay ahead. We spent the afternoon hiking and exploring the desert of Joshua tree. We decided that we wanted to try to get some climbing in before the sun went down. We found a great spot that matched all of our different skill levels and began donning our harnesses and chalking up our hands. As we were flanking out our rope we saw some cars approaching. Our first thought was that they were park rangers, but as the vehicles approached faster, we could see that they were not. When they finally parked the cars they emerged from the vehicles quickly causing all of us to jump in surprise. They began approaching us quickly and with threatening postures. There was four of them total, but their faces were not recognizable because of the headlights shining behind them causing their faces to be cast in shadow. At that moment we realized that we could have either gone to Julian or Alpine to camp and we probably would have been much safer. The fact of the reality was that we were here and we were about to find out what these guys wanted. As they approached one yelled out, “What are ya’ll doing out here so late?!” “Don’t you know this is cartel territory?” My fiance stepped forward, almost in a protective stance, in front of my best friend and I. He said to the man, “We were just going to do some climbing then we were leaving.” The men began drawing nearer and as they did their faces became visible and their features became apparent. They realized that we had seen their faces and a look of concern drew across their faces. They stood taller and told us to leave immediately or else they will force us to leave. At that, we packed up our belongings and ran to the car. As we were driving away six more cars passed us heading towards where we were.
> Jay had not seen either the snake or the wasp’s nest
I’m not a native speaker, but this seems a bit off to me.
On October 16 two cops Jake and Charles ,frustrated and jaded with all the stress of their job of catching bad guys(actually most of them were just guys peeing on the street ), decided to go on a camping trip to the rocky mountain wilderness .
They were so ready for this chilling/relaxing time and had prepared a plan for the whole weekend. They were gonna go fishing in the morning,and then go swim in the lake in the afternoon and then go wildberry hunting in the evening (on special request of Charles ) and at night make a bonfire and have some s’mores. Tis was the perfect weekend in history …..until they reached there. When they reached the camping spot they saw ……people lots and lots of people. Jake asked Charles “Didn’t you say that this was the perfect relaxing place with NO PEOPLE?”
“Well the pictures on Google had no people in them so ,HOW WAS I SUPPOSED TO KNOW?”
Nevertheless they set up their camp cuz they were already there and Charles while defending himself said that what if there were two to three more people than they expected they could still have a good weekend. Jake nodded cuz he was the one who really needed a vacay after finishing up a big serial killer case but the thing was there weren’t just two or three more people there were two to three dozen more people.
Anyways there went to do all the things on their to do list and werw able to do none because their were so many people and there was no space but they did go berry hunting and Jake ate a berry which looked clearly poisonous but it gave him a huge stomachache. Don’t even ask what happened about that. (he pooped in a pit they found in the woods it was neither comfortable nor sanitary)
It was finally night they were gonna start a bonfire but it started raining. Their were so many mosquitoes and 12 different kinds of bugs and they had not brought bug repellent spray. It was a pretty disastrous trip which was neither relaxing nor chilling.
I don’t know whether my comment was deleted or not but I will submit my comment again.
It was a cold winter’s night, and here I am stuck with my family in a 3-person tent in the middle of nowhere, freezing my butt off. There was my annoyingly stubborn brother who could not sit still even though his life depended on it, and my dad, who was just, my dad.
“I told you several times that this spot is too rocky for the poles to be hammered in,” said my brother, “Why don’t you ever listen?”
“It’s either your way or no way, who taught you this? It sure wasn’t me,” said my dad.
A few weeks ago, our family decided it was a good idea to send the kids on a trip to learn about nature and how to survive in it. This excluded our mother for some reason, who is now probably enjoying the peace and quiet that comes with having a full house to yourself. Hach, such bliss. Meanwhile, neither dad nor my brother could figure out whose fault the lopsided tent was.