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Eladio Posted 21 years ago
Grammar

I couldn’t too?

Which one of the following sentences is more used in spoken/written English?
She couldn’t work out the answer, and nor could I.
She couldn’t work out the answer, and neither could I.
She couldn’t work out the answer, and I couldn’t either.
May I say in good English?
She couldn’t work out the answer, and I couldn’t too.
  

Top answer

Let's take the last first! A negative with "too" is the first sign that you don't speak English well! It's "and I couldn't either", never "and I couldn't too"!

— CalifJim

  • Let's take the last first!
  • A negative with "too" is the first sign that you don't speak English well!
  • It's "and I couldn't either", never "and I couldn't too"!
  • I have a friend whose first language is not English.
  • " That sounds very strange to a native speaker.
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5 Answers
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Let's take the last first! A negative with "too" is the first sign that you don't speak English well! It's "and I couldn't either", never "and I couldn't too"! I have a friend whose first language is not English. She is always saying things like "I don't like it too!" That sounds very strange to a native speaker.

"and nor" is not the best combination. "nor" means "and not", so you
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Neither this nor that! Is there really some kind of "and" in there? The first example from the OP seems OK to me.
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"neither this nor that" is equivalent to "not this and not that".
Yes, it's truly true! Emotion: smile
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Well, there's a reasonable number of "and nor"s if you google it, and I asked a few native speakers, and the majority seemed to have no problem with "and nor" sentences.
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"and not" is the first definition of "nor" given in my dictionary!

Anyway, don't discount the first rule of linguistics: "Never trust a native informant."
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