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You say eeither, and I say eiither
That age-old dispute about the pronunciation of the words 'either' and 'neither' as battled out in the famous song would perhaps be best left alone given that, at the end of the day, both are correct and it is merely a matter of regional accent. However, it is not always so easy to determine the usage of these two words together with their trusty friends or and nor... A first pointer to retain is that the phrase
'either of' always refers to one or other
of two things and should therefore never
be used with more than two. For example, you
should say (or write): As to the pairs, let us begin with the more positive of the two: either and or. The rules for usage here are relatively simple. This pair is used to determine a choice between two things, such as in, "you can take your holidays either for one week in July or for two weeks in June". Dutch and French speakers alike please note that you cannot use or followed by or, even if the translation is tempting directly from 'ofwel ... ofwel' or 'soit ... soit'. Things become much more complicated, however, as soon as negatives come into play. The most common pair is neither and nor, indicating that no one of two things is applicable, such as in, "her telephone manner was neither polite nor co-operative". However, nor can also be used after no, as can or (!). This means that both "she had no manners nor patience" and "she had no manners or patience" are correct. Equally, both can be used after not, as in the example, "he has not yet written the minutes (n)or the agenda". A tendency towards or would be preferred given that the negativity of no and not carries forward anyway. It should also be noted that you can feel free to use nor more than once after neither if you wish to indicate that no one of several things is applicable, e.g. "this desk is neither tidy nor organised nor is it properly equipped!" (note the inversion of the verb following nor here). There are other, often more oral uses of these
two words. Neither is used to indicate, for
example, that you did not do something that
some one else has already stated they did not
do:
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