neither … nor

English

Alternative forms

• nor … nor

Conjunction

neither … nor

1. used for showing that something is not true of two or more people, things, actions, qualities, or ideas (This entry is a translation hub.)
   • 1959, Georgette Heyer, chapter 1, in The Unknown Ajax:

     She was neither learned nor intelligent, but she contrived to dress both herself and her daughter out of a meagre jointure, supplying with her clever fingers what her purse could not buy; […] .

   • (Can we date this quote?), Hsun Lu, “The Grand Finale”, in Yang Hsien-yi, Gladys Yang, transl., Selected Stories of Lu Hsun: The True Story of Ah Q, and Other Stories‎^[1], published 2014, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 134:

     Ninety-nine out of a hundred of them could neither read nor write.

Derived terms

• neither fish nor fowl
• neither here nor there
• neither a borrower nor a lender be
• neither hide nor hair

Translations

used for showing that something is not true of two or more people, things, actions, qualities, or ideas

• Arabic: لَا... وَلَا ... (lā... walā ...)
• Belarusian: ні … ні (ni … ni), ані́ ... ані́ (aní ... aní)
• Bulgarian: ни́то ... ни́то (níto ... níto), ни ... ни (ni ... ni)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 不……也不…… (bù … yě bù …) (negative sentence)

• Czech: ani ... ani
• Dutch: noch ... noch
• Esperanto: nek ... nek
• Finnish: ei … eikä
• French: ni … ni
• German: weder … noch
• Greek:

  Ancient: μήτε … μήτε (mḗte … mḗte), οὔτε … οὔτε (oúte … oúte)

• Hungarian: sem…, sem…, se…, se…
• Italian: né … né
• Japanese: …もなくて…もない (… mo nakute … mo nai) (negative sentence, both parts)
• Korean: …도 아니고 …도 아니다 (…do anigo …do anida) (negative sentence, both parts), …도 않고 …도 않다 (…do anko …do anta) (negative sentence, both parts)
• Latin: neque … neque, nec … nec
• Macedonian: ни … ни (ni … ni), ниту … ниту (nitu … nitu)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: verken ... eller, hverken ... eller

  Nynorsk: korkje ... eller, verken ... eller

• Polish: ani … ani
• Romanian: nici … nici
• Russian: ни … ни (ni … ni)
• Slovak: ani ... ani
• Spanish: ni ... ni
• Turkish: ne … ne
• Ukrainian: ні … ні (ni … ni), ані́ ... ані́ (aní ... aní)

See also

• either … or
• both … and
• not only … but also

References

• “neither nor nor” (US) / “neither nor nor” (UK) in Macmillan English Dictionary.
• “neither nor”, in Collins English Dictionary.
• “neither nor” in Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, Longman.