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Kooyeen Posted 19 years ago
Grammar

Neither

0 Hi,02br
00I asked in another thread about "nor", and I was told "I don't like Coke. Nor Pepsi" is ok and not really formal. I thought I couldn'tuse "neither" in place of "nor" in cases like that, but I asked an American native speaker, and she said that "nor" is actually too formal for everyday use, and that "neither" is ok.02br
02br
00I don't know Spanish. Neither Arabic.02br
00I don't have a pc at work. And neither at home...02br
02br
00Is that ok, or is it a regional thing? Thank you 050010id1
  

Top answer

0Oh dear, Kooyeen-- I certainly do not like those examples, and I think very little of the opinion of your 'American native speaker'. I see only one reasonable solution:02br 02br 01i 00I don't like Coke. 01b 00Or02b 00 Pepsi02i 02br 01i 00I don't know Spanish.

— Mister Micawber

  • 0Oh dear, Kooyeen-- I certainly do not like those examples, and I think very little of the opinion of your 'American native speaker'.
  • I see only one reasonable solution:02br 02br 01i 00I don't like Coke.
  • 01b 00Or02b 00 Pepsi02i 02br 01i 00I don't know Spanish.
  • 02br 00I don't have a pc at work.
  • 0-
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17 Answers
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0Oh dear, Kooyeen-- I certainly do not like those examples, and I think very little of the opinion of your 'American native speaker'. I see only one reasonable solution:02br
02br
01i00I don't like Coke. 01b00Or02b00 Pepsi02i02br
01i00I don't know Spanish. 01b00Or02b00 Arabic.02br
00I
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0 My solution02br
00I like neither Coca Cola nor Pepsi02br
00I know neither Spanish nor Arabic02br
00I don't have a pc at work as well as at home.0-
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0 01blockquote
01cite10Mister Micawber12cite10and I think very little of the opinion of your 'American native speaker'.12blockquote
10Hmm, I don't think she would be happy to hear what you think of her opinions, lol... 05002br
00She's not the stereotype of the dumb blond Californian teenager (in case you were thinking
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0 To make matters still more confusing, here's what I would say.02br
02br
01i00I don't know Spanish. Arabic either.02br
00 I don't have a PC at work. At home either.02i02br
02br
00 With the tag comment so close to the original statement, I imagine that the 01i00not02i00 still applies.02br
02b
0
0
0 Hello all:), 02br
02br
00Kooyeen, hope you won't mind if I ask a question here since you are talking about "neither".02br
02br
00What's the difference between "neither" and "either"? Don't they mean the same? When do we use each of them?02br
02br
00Thanks in advance! 0-
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0Can I say, I don't know Spanish 01i00and02i00 Arabic? (Because I don't know both.)02br
02br
00For some reason, I would say, I don't have a PC at work 01i00or02i00at home. 050010id6
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0Hi N2G,02br
02br
00No, if you mean that you don't know either one, you would say "I don't know Spanish or Arabic," and not use the 01i00and02i00. If you know Spanish, but not Arabic, you don't satisify the condition of knowing Spanish 01i00and 02i00Arabic. 0-
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0 Ok, first of all, thank you all for all your replies. [y]02br
00I see I'd better avoid that "neither", and use "or" or say the extended version with "either".02br
02br
00As for the and/or issue, heh, that's a difficult one. Grammar books tell you not to use "and" in negative sentences, but... I believe sometimes it can be used. And I'm always confused... For exa
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0 01blockquote
01cite10Kooyeen12cite10Ok, first of all, thank you all for all your replies. [y]12br
10I see I'd better avoid that "neither", and use "or" or say the extended version with "either".12br
12br
10As for the and/or issue, heh, that's a difficult one. Grammar books tell you not to use "and" in negative sentence
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0 I agree completely with Yankee.02br
02br
00 But a word about 01i00X, Y, and Z don't ...02i00 Here the group with 01i00and02i00 occurs before the negation, so the rule doesn't apply. The scope of the negation is not going to include the words that precede it, of course! The rule should be refined to mention this.02br
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