Frequency: The word is one of the 700 most common words in English.
1.
You use ~ when you are referring to two people or things and saying that something is true about each of them.
She cried out in fear and flung ~ arms up to protect her face...
Put ~ vegetables into a bowl and crush with a potato masher.
DET: DET pl-n
•
Both is also a quantifier.
Both of these women have strong memories of the Vietnam War...
We’re going to Andreas’s Boutique to pick out something original for ~ of us.
QUANT: QUANT of pl-n
•
Both is also a pronoun.
Miss Brown and her friend, ~ from Stoke, were arrested on the 8th of June...
Will there be public-works programmes, or community service, or ~?
PRON
•
Both is also an emphasizing pronoun.
He visited the Institute of Neurology in Havana where they ~ worked...
‘Well, I’ll leave you ~, then,’ said Gregory.
PRON: n PRON
•
Both is also a predeterminer.
Both the band’s writers are fascinating lyricists...
Both the horses were out, tacked up and ready to ride.
PREDET: PREDET det pl-n emphasis
2.
You use the structure ~...and when you are giving two facts or alternatives and emphasizing that each of them is true or possible.
Now women work ~ before and after having their children...
Any such action would have to be approved by ~ American and Saudi leaders.
CONJ