Either / Or versus Neither / Nor
Often, people confuse either and neither. Since these are connected to or and nor, I decided to include these with this post, as well.
My husband and I had a recent conversation where this came up. The simplest way to put this is that either is always used with or and neither with nor.
Either / or is used when you are saying it can be either this or that. The Cambridge dictionary says it’s used to connect two choices.
Neither / Nor is used for the negative, to indicate it is neither here nor there. Cambridge dictionary says it’s used when making a negative statement about two things/people at the same time: “We use it to say ‘not either’ in relation to two things.
“Two common sentence constructions we use in the English language are neither/nor and either/or.
Both of these phrases are correlative conjunctions: pairs of conjunctions that connect words or phrases within a sentence.”
https://prowritingaid.com/neither-nor-either-or
“Grammar Guru Tip #22
Think of “nor” as “or” for negative sentences, and it’s not optional. Use “nor” before the second or farther of two alternatives when “neither” introduces the first.Example:
Neither my mother nor I understand these directions.Pro tip: You can also use “nor” with a negative first clause or a sentence including “not.”
Example:
https://newsroom.unl.edu/announce/snr/3511/19686
She didn’t know where to go, nor did I.”