 Either or neither. That's what we're talking about in this video. Two confusing words that, guess what? These even confuse native English speakers as well. So don't worry, you're not alone, but I'm going to make the difference really easy for you and give you an easy way to remember if you should use either or neither. Of course, I'm Jennifer from jforistenglish.com and this channel is dedicated to helping you sound like a fluent, confident, natural English speaker. Now before we go any further, make sure you subscribe and hit that bell notification so you're notified every time I post a new video. Now, let's dive in with this lesson. Neither. Do you know what the difference is? If you do, stop right now and put it in the comments. Even if you don't, put it in the comments what you think the difference is and then you can compare it to the end of the video and see how much you learned today. I'm going to make this explanation real easy for you and by the end of the video, you'll feel confident using either and neither in sentences. This is definitely an area I see lots of mistakes with but not just with non-native English speakers. I see this with my friends, with my colleagues, with native English speakers as well. So don't worry too much about this but I will make it easy for you to remember. Now before we go any further, I just want you to know that the pronunciation is flexible. So you can say neither, neither, either, either. Okay, there's no difference. I might even change them throughout the video. If I do, there's no difference at all. I tend to use either and neither and that's generally what I hear being used in North America. With that said, let's talk about the difference between either and neither and let's start with either. In terms of structure, it's going to be either noun or noun and we use this structure when we're choosing between two options. It's really important that it's only two options. We don't use it with three and we don't use it with four. We use it with two options. Let's take a look at an example. Either Mike or John will help you. So as you can see, we have our structure either noun or noun, right? Now in terms of meaning, both of these situations are possible. It's possible that Mike will help you. It's possible that John will help you. Now it's important to know that it's only one person that will help you in the end. So in the end, you will have Mike or John. Either Mike or John will help you. So let's take a moment and practice now that we know how to form a sentence using either or. So pause the video if you need. Think of an example. Remember, the structure is either noun or noun and then the rest of your sentence. So think about what your sentence is and then put it in the comments below. Now before we move on, let's talk about different sentence structures using either. Now it's definitely possible that the nouns, Mike and John in this scenario, the nouns have already been identified, okay? And if that's the case, there are some other sentence structures that you can use. In fact, there are three possibilities. They mean exactly the same thing. So let's say that our nouns have already been identified. So I could say Mike and John are in the office today. So we already set the context that Mike and John are our nouns, right? I don't need to repeat that information. So I could say Mike and John are in the office today. Either one will help you. Notice here, either one, okay? Of course, either one, one is Mike and one is John. I don't need to repeat those nouns because I said them at the beginning part of my sentence. In this case, I can simply say either one will help you. Now remember, I said there's three different choices of sentence structure. I could also say either one of them will help you. So notice here, I'm just adding of them. Of course, the them is Mike and John. You got this, right? Okay, our third choice is I could say either of them will help you. So what am I doing different here? In this case, I'm simply dropping the one, right? So all three of these choices mean exactly the same thing. You can use them interchangeably. There's no difference at all. Remember, these three choices are used when the nouns have already been identified. So now take a second, take your example that you already used and change it so you identify the nouns first and then follow this structure. Remember, you have three different choices. So practice using all three and put your practice examples in the comments. Now let's talk about neither. The thing you need to remember is that neither is negative. So I think it's really easy to remember that it's negative because neither starts with an N and negative starts with an N. So you can just have that association in your brain, right? Neither, negative, neither, negative, N, N. So that's an easy way to remember it. So think of it as the exact same as either, but we use it in the negative. So instead of saying that both choices are available and possible like we did with either, we're using neither to deny those two choices, okay? They're not available. Now there's one important change that we need to make and this change is definitely something that native English speakers forget a lot, okay? But that change is we have to say neither noun. Do you know what I'm gonna say next? Do you? Put it in the comments if you do. Neither noun, nor, nor, now. Now again, I think this should be easy for you to remember because you just put an N in front of or, right? Nor, nor, N, negative, neither, negative. So use that brain association. I think it will be really easy for you to remember it that way. Neither, nor, okay? So let's take our original example with either and put it in the negative with neither. So pause the video, think about that and put it in the comments. What would our original example be with neither? Hmm, put it in the comments. Of course it would be neither Mike nor John will help you. I don't know why they won't help you but they won't because remember neither is negative. So we're saying those two choices are not available. So you can think of it as you have two choices, right? John and Mike. John won't help you, Mike won't help you. Neither Mike nor John will help you. Now the same three different sentence structures that we saw with either are exactly the same for neither. So in that case it's really easy. We just change either to neither. But remember it's negative, neither, negative. So pause the video, think about what our original examples were with either and put them in the comments with neither. Did you get them in the comments? Hopefully you did. So remember we need to put the context and identify our nouns. So I could still say Mike and John are in the office. They can still be in the office but they're just not willing to help you, okay? So Mike and John are in the office. Neither one will help you, right? Neither one will help you. What are the two other choices? Put them in the comments. Neither one of them will help you. Or our third choice? Neither of them will help you. Not very nice Mike and John are they? Okay, so by now you feel really comfortable with either and neither, right? But let me give you one more scenario before you go because it's an important one and this is an area that I see native English speakers make mistakes with, okay? So let's imagine you're talking to your friend and they just randomly say, I don't speak French. I don't speak French, okay? I don't negative. I don't speak French. Now, how can we answer this using neither? Hmm, I don't speak French. What would I say as my answer? Neither do I. Neither do I because it's negative. I don't speak French. So I'm matching my answer with neither because neither is negative, okay? Neither do I. Now there's a casual, a more casual informal way that native English speakers answer that and we simply say me neither, me neither. That's a little more of a casual way but I say it all the time. Neither do I is, you know, the formal way. Me neither. I don't speak French, me neither. I don't speak French, neither do I. Now I don't wanna confuse you but it is possible to answer this with either but it's not that common, okay? But I just want you to know that it's possible. I don't speak French. How can I answer this with either? Do you know? If you do, put it in the comments. Bonus points if you know this one. Put it in the comments. If I wanted to answer with either to a negative, I would have to make either negative, okay? I would have to say I don't speak French. I don't either. I don't either. I don't speak French. I don't either. In this case, there's only one possible answer. So that's definitely a possibility. It's just not as common as saying me neither, neither do I. But remember, negative statement, you use neither to agree with that negative statement. I don't like coffee, neither do I. Now before you go, just one more bonus thing, okay? Now imagine it was a positive statement, okay? And my friend said, I speak French. My answer would be, me too, me too, so do I, so do I. So if it's a positive statement and you're agreeing positively, we don't use either and we don't use neither, okay? So those don't exist in this situation. They're not choices. All right, awesome job. Now you know how to use either and neither and let me tell you right now, your knowledge is probably more advanced than many native English speakers. So awesome job today. If you found this video helpful, please hit the like button, share it with your friends and of course, subscribe. Now before you go, make sure you head on over to my website, jforisenglish.com and download your free speaking guide. In this guide, I share six tips on how to speak English fluently and confidently. And until next time, happy studying. All right, way to go. Now you know how to use either and neither, woohoo. Don't stop there, check out this video. And don't forget about this video and make sure you subscribe. And until next time, bye.