How To Say Either Or and Neither Nor in German?
“Either…or” and “neither…nor” are so-called compound conjunctions in German that are used to link two statements and establish a correlation between them. They follow the typical word order in German for main clauses with the conjugated verb in second position.
Let’s consider some examples.
Entweder…oder -either…or
Ich lese entweder ein Buch oder ich sehe fern (Either I read a book or I watch tv)
Sie geht entweder joggen oder macht Pilates (She either goes jogging or does pilates)
Weder..noch — neither…nor
Er trinkt weder Wein noch (trinkt er) Bier (He neither drinks wine nor beer)
Sie möchte weder ins Kino noch (möchte er) ins Theater gehen (She neither wants to go to the cinema nor to the theatre)
In all the above examples, I decided to start with the subject of the sentence. However, for reasons of emphasis, you might want to start with the first conjunction.
Entweder lese ich ein Buch oder ich sehe fern.
Weder trinkt er Wein noch Bier.
According to German comma rules, there is no need to separate the two statements with a comma.
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