If you’ve always had difficulties in using “either” or “neither” and if you’re not sure about using them in the right place, do not feel bad, because you’re not the only one who is facing these difficulties. Even native English speakers will sometimes get confused with using them. You can tackle and differentiate the usage by using by knowing little grammar tricks.
The words either and neither can be vastly used in several ways such as:
- Adverbs
- Pronouns
- Conjunctions
- Determiners
Following are examples of how they can be used
Adverbs. If you find these words h=behaving like adverbs then both “either” and “neither” act as linking words. For instance,
I do not like half-cooked veggies- Neither do I
I do not like bike rides- No, I don’t like them either
Pronouns. Whenever the words “either” and “neither” behave like pronouns, the structure of the sentence would be:
Either/neither followed by of + noun phrase
While they act as pronouns, either means “one or the other” whereas neither means “not one or the other”
Both these routes lead to the village, you can use either of them
Neither of my legs is strong enough to run the marathon
Conjunctions. If either and neither behave as conjunctions, we can also find them combined with “or and “nor”
Either/or- These words are used to provide a choice between two things
Either my mom or my brother will drop me at school today
Neither/ nor- When these two words are paired up, they negate both the parts of a statement
I will neither call you nor text you unless you realize your mistake.
Determiners. Either and neither are positioned before a noun if they behave as determiners
This warehouse has an exit and either end
Neither teachers could finish their portions; there wasn’t enough time left
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