| Hi everybody, my name is Alisha. In this lesson, I am going to talk about the differences between Either and Neither. I am going to start by explaining Either and I am going to talk about the different grammatical uses of this word. Then we are going to compare that to the word Neither and we are going to use a lot of example sentences to show you how these two words work. So let's get started. |
| Okay. As I said, I want to start with the word Either for today. Let's start with the use of Either as an adjective. So as an adjective, Either means one and the other of two things or two people or one or the other of two things or two people. |
| So let's look at two example sentences. The first one is, there are tall buildings on either side of the street. So on either side shows us that there are tall buildings on one side of the street and there are tall buildings on the other side of the street. So both sides of the street. Either shows us this. One and the other of two things. In this case, sides. |
| However, you will notice that side is used in the singular form. When you use either in this way, you don't need to use the plural form. So saying, on either sides of the street is incorrect. Please use the singular side. In this case, we are using the word side but when you use Either in this way, you don't need to use the plural form of the noun that follows. |
| Let's look at the second example sentence with this point. We can have the meeting on either day, on either day. So here, the meaning is the second meaning I mentioned. One or the other of two. So here, the topic is a meeting. One meeting. Therefore, from context, we can understand that the meeting is going to happen only on one day, not two days. So we know this usage either means one day or a different day. One or the other. So this usage Either follows this second meaning of the adjective form. |
| Again here, we see the day which follows either is used in the singular form. We don't need to use either days but either day. So please use the singular here. Okay. So this is the adjective form of either. Let's move on to another use of either which is as an adverb. So as an adverb, either means in addition. In addition or in other words, And kind of. So we use this to emphasize something that's negative really. |
| Let's look at an example of how to do that. Here, the service at this restaurant was really bad. The food wasn't good either. So here, we are using either at the end of the sentence to reinforce a negative opinion. In the first sentence here, I've introduced a negative opinion. |
| The restaurant wasn't very good. In other words, the service was bad. And then, I am adding another point. The food wasn't good either. So either is adding emphasis. It's like in addition. In addition. But for negative points and it comes at the end of the sentence. So we don't say either the food wasn't good. We do not use it in this way. This emphasis comes at the end of the sentence. |
| Let's look at one more example. She doesn't know how to use a smartphone, a computer either. So here, we have this kind of casual, not a full sentence but this is a very common use of Either in this case. It's just adding on a small bit of extra information for emphasis. |
| So again, there's this negative point here. She doesn't know how to use a smartphone. So this can be understood as a negative thing. We emphasize it with a computer either. So Either shows us this initial phrase, "not being able to use a smartphone" is negative but there's this other thing, "she can't use a computer either." So, here we are seeing again this negative emphasis and Either comes at the end of the emphasis expression. So this is the adverbial use of Either. |
| All right. Let's go on now to a couple of other points. First is the use of Either as a pronoun. So just as we talked about with the adjective form as a pronoun, Either means one or the other of something. Let's look at some examples. |
| Have either of you seen my key? So here, we have Either, Either of you seen my keys. Either shows us there are two people in this situation. There are two people listening to this statement. Have either of you seen my keys meaning one or the other of you two people listening, have you seen my keys. |
| The second example sentence. You can have either of these cupcakes meaning there are two cupcakes available. Please choose one. Either is okay. You can choose either of these cupcakes but not both. So here, one or the other is kind of a key point. Also, you'll notice in these sentences we are following the word Either with of. So, have either of you seen my keys? And you can have either of these cupcakes. We will follow either with of in this case. This is quite common when using it as a pronoun. All right. |
| Let's go to the last point about Either then. As a conjunction. So a conjunction remember we use to connect words. Conjunctions are used to connect points in a sentence. So as a conjunction, Either presents two or more choices. These choices are connected by the word Or. So, some examples of this. You can have either cake or ice cream for dessert. So here, either introduces the choices, in this case cake or ice cream and or separates two. So either cake or ice cream. So there are some choices presented here. |
| Another example. We can go to either Mexico or Thailand for vacation. So again, two choices are presented. They are introduced by Either and they are connected with the word Or. So this is how we can use the word Either as a conjunction. All right. So, with that, let's then look at the word Neither. So here, we can see that Either remains in the word. We just have an N at the beginning. So that tells us Neither is really the negative form of Either meaning not either. That's the meaning of Neither. |
| So as an adjective then, we can assign the same meaning, not either. So we learned either as an adjective means one and the other of two or one or the other of two. The opposite is true for neither. It means not either. So an example, a quick, easy example. Do you want pasta or pizza? Neither, I want curry. So not either of those two. Do you want this or this? Neither. Ah, neither, I want curry. So I don't want either is a different way of saying that but neither is a quick way to respond. |
| So we can use it to mean the opposite of either here. We can also use neither as a conjunction which we use with nor. So here, we saw when we use either as a conjunction, we connect the two options with the word Or. When we are making a negative though, we can use the word Nor. You might hear the word Or used as well but nor is probably the most correct or nor would probably be the most preferred choice in this case. You will be understood if you use Or however in this case. So, let's look at this example. |
| So again, this is the opposite of the use of Either as we talked about before. So the meaning is also Not. In an example, his work is neither fun nor challenging. So again, here we introduced the two points with the word neither to show it's going to be a negative. And then the two points are connected with the word Nor. So, in the positive sentence, we saw we use the word Or to make the connection. Here, in the negative sentence with the use of Neither, we use Nor to do that. |
| All right. Finally, on to a pronoun use. So again, as a pronoun, Neither means not either. So an example sentence of this. Neither of them have eaten dinner. So neither, again we see this of them. Here, we saw it as a pronoun too. Have either of you seen my keys. We see the same of when used as a pronoun in the negative then. Neither of them have eaten dinner. So, those two people. There are two people involved here and this person, that person, neither of the two people have eaten dinner in this case. So you will see the same Of used when used as a pronoun. |
| Finally, I want to mention this point up here. We can use neither to express this kind of negative agreement. This is a very common use and you will probably hear this a lot. When you want to express negative agreement about something. For example, person A says, I don't like spicy food. Person B says, me neither. You might hear this. So it's expressing, I agree about your negative statement. Please be careful though. This negative refers to a grammatical negative. So here, I've used I don't. I do not like spicy food in my example sentence. |
| There is a negative Not there. So it's natural to say me neither to respond to that. If however the speaker said, I hate spicy food and the second person said, me neither, it's not correct because there is no negative in the first sentence. It's perhaps a negative idea. I hate something but there's no grammatical negative in this sentence. So please be careful. If there's not a negative introduced in that first point, you don't need to use Neither to agree with that statement. |
| So please keep that in mind. All right, so those are the few key points about the words either and neither. It's a lot of information. If you have any questions or if you'd like to give it a try, please feel free to do so in the comments section below this video. Thanks very much for watching this lesson and I will see you again soon. Bye bye! |
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