Either – Or and Neither – Nor
are correlative conjunctions and used in pairs.
- You can join either the music club or the art club.
- You can either listen to music or join a club.
- You can have either a banana or an orange.
- You can either eat a banana or drink a glass of juice.
- I predict that either Italy or France will win the game.
When the choice is between two nouns:
we place EITHER – OR / NEITHER – NOR before the noun.
- You can join neither the music club nor the art club.
- You can join either the music club or the art club.
- You can have neither a banana nor an orange.
- You can have either a banana or an orange.
- They predicted that neither Spain nor Germany would win the game.
- They predicted that either Italy or Brazil would win the game.
When the choice is between two verbs:
we place EITHER -OR / NEITHER – NOR before the verb.
- You can neither listen to music nor join a club.
- You can either listen to music or join a club.
- You can neither eat a banana nor drink a glass of juice.
- You can either eat a banana or drink a glass of juice.
Either and Neither can be used as pronouns:
they can be used alone
- Would you like a black pen or a blue pen? Either.
- Would you like a soda or a glass of juice? Neither. I don’t want either. I would like some ice tea.
Either can be used as an adverb:
it can be used after a negative verb
- They don’t eat meat and they don’t eat seafood either.
Either can be used as a determiner:
it can be used to express a choice or two options
- Either beach will do. They both have soft sand.
- I don’t like either color.
Tip: Either of
We add OF before plural nouns and the possessive
They don’t want want either of their dogs to swim in the lake.
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