EITHER... OR | NEITHER... NOR in English – Grammar Lesson

B1–B2ConjunctionsMarch 15, 2026

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Either or Neither nor in English

Hi, just a quick video on Either or and Neither

nor, how to use them and plenty of example sentences.

Firstly pronunciation. They can be pronounced either or OR either or.

And likewise neither nor and neither nor. They represent a choice between 2 things that

are the same grammatical type, both adjectives, nouns, verbs, phrases, clauses

here are some examples: I’m not sure where’s Bruno is from. He’s

either Spanish or Italian. choice 1 is Spanish

choice 2 is Italian. Here it is a choice of 2 adjectives.

Or a choice between 2 nouns. I’ve saved some money to buy either a new

dress[choice 1] or [choice 2] a new coat. Or a choice between 2 verbs

Either apologise or leave. Choice one is apologise

choice 2 is leave. Or a choice between phrases:

You can stay either with me or with Janet. Or a choice between 2 clauses:

Either I drive to the airport or I get a taxi. Or even prefixes!

We can either pre- or post-date the document. I don’t mind.

As long as the 2 choices are the same grammatical type.

The opposite of either… or… is neither… nor…. We use it to make negative statements

connecting items: So here are some examples:

Neither Brian nor his wife mentioned anything about moving house. (Brian didn’t mention

that they were moving house and his wife didn’t mention that they were moving house.)

We got so wet. We had neither umbrellas nor raincoats with us!

Neither our families nor our friends know that we are getting married!

Neither Chris nor Pat came to the party. Tom said he would contact me, but he neither

wrote nor phoned. HOWEVER ...it can sound formal in speaking:

Neither Italy nor France got to the quarterfinals last year.

The less formal alternative is to use and … not … either:

Italy didn’t get to the quarterfinals last year and France didn’t either.

One little thing to remember for both either or and neither nor is that the subject that

is closest to the verb decides the form. So If the subject closest to the verb is singular,

use a singular verb. If the closest subject is plural, use a plural verb.

Either his mother or my sisters are singing in the pub tonight.

Here my sisters is closest to the verb so the verb is in the plural form.

Either my sisters or his mother is singing in the pub tonight.

here my mother is closest to the verb so it is in the singular form

and the same for neither nor Neither his mother nor my sisters are singing

in the pub tonight. Here my sisters is closest to the verb so

the verb is in the plural form. Neither my sisters nor his mother is singing

in the pub tonight. here my mother is closest to the verb so it

is in the singular form That’s it for now. I hope you feel more

comfortable using either or and neither nor in English now. Remember to like this video

if you found it useful, share it with friends and colleagues learning English and subscribe

so as not to miss out on any new English language videos.

Bye for now and see you very soon!

Either or Neither nor in English

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About this lesson

Learn how to use correlative conjunctions either...or and neither...nor correctly in English.

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