NEITHER


Meaning of NEITHER in English

I. nei ‧ ther 1 W3 /ˈnaɪðə $ ˈniːðər/ BrE AmE determiner , pronoun

not one or the other of two people or things ⇨ either :

‘Would you like tea or coffee?’ ‘Neither, thanks.’

It was a game in which neither team deserved to win.

neither of

Neither of them can cook.

Thompson had two strategies, neither of which seems to have worked very well.

We asked both John and Jerry, but neither one could offer a satisfactory explanation.

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GRAMMAR

Neither is used before a singular noun. Use a singular verb after it:

Neither answer is right.

Neither of is used before a plural noun or pronoun. In formal speech and writing, use a singular verb after it:

Neither of us speaks Spanish.

In informal speech and writing, you can use a plural verb:

Neither of us are students.

II. neither 2 S2 W3 BrE AmE adverb

used to show that a negative statement is also true about another person or thing ⇨ either

neither does/can/will etc somebody

‘I don’t have any money.’ ‘Neither do I.’

Tom didn’t believe a word she said, and neither did the police.

‘I don’t like horror movies.’ ‘Me neither.’

III. neither 3 BrE AmE conjunction

1 . neither ... nor ... used when mentioning two things that are not true or possible:

Neither Oleg’s mother nor his father spoke English.

The equipment is neither accurate nor safe.

GRAMMAR

Do not say 'neither ... or ...'. Say neither ... nor ... or not ... or ... :

Neither he nor his wife enjoyed the vacation.

Most computer users do not know or wish to know about how their computers work.

2 . be neither here nor there spoken used to say that something is not important because it does not affect a fact or situation SYN irrelevant :

The fact that she needed the money for her children is neither here nor there – it’s still stealing.

3 . be neither one thing nor the other spoken used to say that something or someone cannot be described as either one of two types of thing or person, but is somewhere in the middle of the two:

The New York Times is neither one thing nor the other. It’s not really a city newspaper and it’s not really a national newspaper either.

4 . formal used to add another negative statement about someone or something SYN nor :

The authorities were not sympathetic to the students’ demands, neither would they tolerate any disruption.

Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English.      Longman - Словарь современного английского языка.