[Update] Sentence examples by Cambridge Dictionary | neither nor example – NATAVIGUIDES

These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.

They also made it clear that they neither wanted nor expected many treaties to be made.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Since neither of these conditions provides information on the spatial location of the target, the subtraction gives a pure measure of alerting.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Both the external and internal environments are important, and neither can be viewed independently of the other.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Neither the obscuration nor the defiance can do justice to things as they really are.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Lions do not love; but neither do they philosophise; bears do not love; but the reason is they do not know the sweets of friendship.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The past and the present seemed to him neither antithetical nor separable.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Neither of the more ideological parties attracted a large following however.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

My penitence can neither cause nor earn your forgiveness.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

They can neither bring about nor earn your forgiveness since that remains up to you to decide.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

As such neither you nor our relationship can be replaced by another.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

They are neither friends, nor lovers, nor fathers, nor citizens of the world, nor benefactors of their country.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

When neither soul nor body has been crossed.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Neither did much change for the provincial police.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Goods that are neither consumed nor placed into this technology will perish once the investment opportunity has passed.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

In the first place one must recognise that the choice of (principal) language need be determinant neither of ethnicity nor of nationality.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Note that we neither assume nor exclude the exchange rule.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

In the end, neither the support of the superpowers nor the oil billions could save it.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The meanings of neither objects nor practices are either stable or delimitable, of course.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

In neither case is there a chance to collect and manually score the requisite number of essay responses to train a new model.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The common problem that both of these methods share is that neither of them relates to existing literature.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

What is this uniformity in which everything is neither far nor near – is, as it were, without distance?

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Neither performer nor audience receives a sort of personhood or individuality that would more likely lead to a diversified discussion of their experience.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The onset must not necessarily be rapid, neither should the decay.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

There is no more written information about the tape part, neither graphic sign nor notation.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

In such a representation, and from a logical point of view, neither time nor space are involved.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Neither of these moment requirements is met for our = 4 calibrations, in part because stationarity is volatility induced.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Neither was there a significant relationship with respect to gender.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Rainfall is considered in [26], however, neither evaporation nor infiltration are investigated.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

In neither case there is a village shaman.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The argument is that generalism, through the coverage of all criteria by all students in all higher education institutions, is neither desirable nor possible.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

They get neither the page space nor the reading time, and the less obviously attractive they are the less coverage they get.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Consequently, these sources of variability neither impose an initial perceptual cost nor provide a subsequent retention benefit.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

In addition, the serial recall difference score was found to correlate neither with reading ability nor with phonemic awareness.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Consistent with the analyses of variance, neither the facilitation nor the competition measures were significantly correlated with age.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Unfortunately, these functions increase with r, and so they are neither bell-shaped nor globally integrable.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Neither does it specify the mechanism(s) underlying the other disruptors that have been used in the study of resistance to change.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

They stated that they found what appeared to be tombs that had neither bones nor offerings inside.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Preliminary analyses indicated that neither of these variables influenced the spouses’ division of care.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

What is clear is that neither the word ‘ stepfamily ‘ nor the use of the step-stem is being embraced by our respondents.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Neither of these women was passive or removed from the daily concerns of life.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Neither of these conditions is authored by the architect, but both enter into the determination of whether the design is suitable.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Neither can we say with certainty what does not work.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

First, regarding dependency as part of the normal human experience neither elevates nor debases it.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Because it knows nothing, it is neither happy nor sad.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Adaptations in the home and private help were found to affect orientation neither directly nor in interaction with comfort.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

In contrast, neither kanji users nor context users benefited from the availability of the two sources.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The building type that gradually evolved was neither a terrace house nor a block of flats.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Neither functioned for their original purposes, but both are expressions of the identity and values of their builders.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Neither repair nor replacement, nor correction for that matter, necessarily premises error in the strictest sense.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

At zero affective component of dysphoria neither group reported any self-devaluative feelings.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Neither did clear evidence emerge of an impact of the frequency or duration of treatment on outcomes.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

In this study, the numbers not adhering to the treatment allocated were not large neither were the numbers referred to alternative services.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

However, neither of the measures used were investigated for reliability or validity.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Neither attempted to take fiscal control away from central state apparatuses.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Since > 0 and 1 0, neither term on the right-hand side of the continuity equation can be of leading-order.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

There is a transition zone in the solar wind where the plasma is neither fully collisional nor collisionless.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

What is sung is neither representational nor a process tied to cognition as we generally understand it, but a tangible physical effect.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Unsurprisingly, the music industry was not directly involved in the policy making, neither funding programmes nor organisations that served a public good.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Interestingly, each song uses its most compelling metaphor in the first verse and neither is his best example of thematic coherence following that.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Fine-grained discrimination deficits in language learning impaired children are specific neither to the auditory modality nor to speech perception.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Neither structural nor frequency factors are able to account for these findings.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Neither the majority nor the dissent, for example, challenged the authority of the court and legislature to create binding law.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Are there act-types that are morally significant even though neither required nor prohibited?

From the Cambridge English Corpus

If neither duty extinguishes the other, then neither right should extinguish the other.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

In the same sense, there are neither pencil-experts nor hammer-experts.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

I may not care about scraping or painting, and neither may you.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Rules are not allowed the same device, and neither syllable structure available before or after application of rewrite rules will cause the desired ambiguity.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

In neither (6) nor (7) do the patterns of elaboration allow us to understand time as prompting for an entity which is infinite in nature.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

We conclude that neither syntax-first nor multiple-constraints accounts of parsing provide a full account of our findings.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

When the rightmost [u] is no longer in final position, neither [u] is licensed, so schwa results.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

In (18c) we see a case where there is unambiguously neither gender nor number agreement.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Neither promotion nor subjectlessness is directly effected by passivization in (3b) and (4b).

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Of course, neither the quantitative results nor the interpretation of the results would be the same in both theories.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

In our results, neither single effect was significant.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Unfortunately, neither study considered the implications of inflexibility at the workplace on domestic life.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Neither woman talks much about changing relationships with friends.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Neither survey asks the question covered by the respective other survey.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The benefits accruing through positive discrimination are neither enough nor shared by all.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Neither option, however, suited the political requirements of provincial politics.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Neither ‘ care ‘ nor ‘ dependency ‘ have simple, uncontested meanings.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

At the heart of the issue is the imperative that advertisers neither harm nor discriminate.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

In attempting to be both a training manual and an academic text, it serves neither audience well.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The transformation of the central provincial relationship was in all probability neither politic nor possible in the short term.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

However, neither the financial resources nor the technology were available, and therefore, heavy and chemical industrialization during this period was not very successful.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Neither had his condemnation of outward religious signs always been based in principle.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

However, “straton model” was never proven by experiment, neither treated as a working hypothesis.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Neither do geometric geodesics prescribe our perceptual solutions in more than a few specialized cases.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

A localist model of words will not represent nonwords locally, neither would one expect it to.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

We see such labeling as neither unambiguous nor as useful.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Neither of them is related to the context of the mental states of the character as established by the strip.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Neither the similarity nor the difficulty of required discriminations, nor the spatial distribution of information, could account for the results.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

There is no more reason to invoke a human model than a chimpanzee model, or neither.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

If this answer – that neither chip is unique green – is correct, then we are in trouble.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.

Conjunctions are words used to bring together two distinct clauses or thoughts. However, using these words to bridge two statements could be at times confusing – particularly if the connecting word is not as common or straightforward as “but” or “and”. In other words, many writers stumble when using the word “nor” to link sentences.

To correctly use “nor” in a sentence, make sure the conjunction introduces a negative element or clause. Though “nor” can be used as a standalone word, it’s mostly paired with “neither”, an indefinite pronoun. Most importantly, do not use “either” instead of “neither” as a companion word for “nor”.

Keep reading to learn everything there is to know about using “nor” in a sentence (with and without “neither”), some example sentences with “nor” and with both “neither” and “nor” in them, and lots more.

Nor – Definition 

The conjunction “nor” is a negative particle or connective that introduces the second negative clause or element in a sentence – typically following “neither” used in the first clause. This relationship between “neither” and “nor” is the opposite of the word pairing of “either” and “or”, with the latter pair having positive connotations. Needless to say, “either” and “nor”, or “neither” and “or” cannot be paired together.

How to Properly Use “Nor” in a Sentence 

As aforementioned, “nor” is used in a sentence post a negative statement, to introduce one more negative element that adds to the first statement.

Beginning a Sentence with “Nor” 

It’s perfectly fine to begin a sentence with “nor”. Those sentences are usually conversational in nature or immediately follow another sentence.

For example, Tom says “I have never used an iPhone before.” To which, Mary could say, “Nor have I.” 

Starting a sentence with “nor” may sound a bit formal. If you’d like to make the conversation less formal, you may replace “nor” with “neither”. In other words, the second sentence in the above example could be, “Neither have I.”

The first sentence of a new paragraph usually cannot begin with “nor” since the word is a conjunction. If it’s used at the beginning of a sentence, the reader would want to know the context in which the sentence lies. For instance, the sentence “Nor have I” sounds incomplete and meaningless if it has no prior sentence to base itself on.

Here are a couple more sentences to explain the point:

“I have described the situation to you over and over again, but you just don’t seem to understand. Nor are you willing to try to make yourself understand.”

If you read just the second sentence starting with “nor” above, it would mean almost nothing.

Using “Neither” and “Nor” 

In a sentence, “nor” is usually paired with “neither”. “Neither” is used before “nor” to set up the premise so that “nor” could introduce the next alternative or a set of alternatives. This pairing of the two words is called “correlative pairing”, which states the information a particular term introduces is related or connected to the information introduced by the other term. The two words could be incorporated when discussing events or when listing nouns.

However, “nor” is not always dependent on or needs “neither” in a sentence. It could at times feature in sentences without “neither” in the initial clause. In such cases, the conjunction is typically a part of the first clause.

Also, “nor” and “neither” are interchangeable. Take a look at the following sentences:

• He cannot fix my phone and

  neither/nor

  can I.

• The cops are unable to take questions at this point in time,

  nor/neither

  can they make public the name of the suspect.

• My family didn’t believe in me,

  nor/neither

  did my close friends.

Though a sentence can have the conjunction “nor” by itself, it isn’t the norm. The sentence with just “nor” could, in fact, read a bit unnatural and stiff at times. And since the usage of “nor” without “neither” is not common, it may lead to some readers believing you framed the sentence wrong.

Another point worth mentioning is both “neither” and “nor” work parallelly. This means the clauses or phrases they introduce individually should be of the same type. In other words, the phrase that follows the two words should be a noun or a verb. “Neither” cannot be introducing a noun, and “nor” introducing a verb in the same sentence. For example, 

• “She saw neither

  Jim

  nor

  Andre

  during the excursion.” This sentence is correct as both “neither” and “nor” are introducing the proper nouns “Jim” and “Andre” respectively.

• “She neither

  saw

  Jim nor

  spoke

  to Andre during the excursion.” This sentence is also correct as the two correlative words introduce a verb.

• “She neither

  saw

  Jim nor

  Andre

  during our trip.” This sentence is not correct as the word “neither” is followed by a verb, whereas a noun follows “nor”.

As mentioned above, “neither” and “nor” introduce clauses that have negative undercurrents, and “either” and “or” have positive connotations. This means breaking the respective pairs and interchanging the words is incorrect. In other words, the following sentences are wrong: 

• Todd

  neither

  knows the game’s rules

  or

  tries to know.

• I will

  either

  head to the bookstore

  nor

  buy groceries.

Also, if the sentence has its tenses mixed, consider the second noun – which is usually the noun after “nor”. The verb should be determined based on the tense of the second noun or “nor”. 

Here are a couple of sentences for a better understanding of the rule: 

• Neither they nor she

  are

  keen. (Incorrect)

• Neither they nor she

  is

  keen. (Correct)

Using “Nor” in the Same Sentence Twice 

Like mentioned before, “nor” is used in a sentence to introduce a secondary clause or element. When it’s introducing more than one element, however, the word could be used more than once in the same sentence.

Here is a sentence with “nor” mentioned once:

• I like neither goat milk

  nor

  camel milk.

The two elements in the sentence are “goat milk” and “camel milk”. If the same sentence had more than two elements, it would read like this: 

• I like neither goat milk

  nor

  camel milk

  nor

  cow milk. I like only buffalo milk.

Here are a couple more sentences with a couple of mentions of “nor”:

• He can neither write

  nor

  read,

  nor

  is he capable of comprehending such concepts.

• They will not wait for me,

  nor

  for you,

  nor

  for anybody.

Also, the conjunction “nor” could feature more than twice in the same sentence. Here is an example sentence: 

• Neither rain,

  nor

  snow,

  nor

  night gloom,

  nor

  heat can prevent these courier companies from completing their appointed rounds.

Using “Or” in Place of “Nor” 

The conjunction “nor” is used to denote a continuing negative state. The two negative items emphasized using the words “neither” and “nor” are part of the same speech. However, there are instances when you can use “or” instead of “nor”. 

Typically, a sentence that uses “or” doesn’t have “neither” in it. The conjunction “neither” is invariably replaced with “not”. Here are a few sentences illustrating the point: 

• She is

  not

  keen on studying science

  or

  math.

This sentence cannot be framed as, “She is neither keen on studying science or math.” 

Similarly, “He didn’t speak clearly or slowly” is grammatically correct. On the other hand, “He didn’t speak clearly nor slowly” is not right. 

Example Sentences with the Word “Nor” 

The following are sentences that incorporate the word “nor”:

• The virus cannot survive in people with strong immunity,

  nor

  in nature.

• I do not work for anyone other than Jim,

  nor

  do I bid on behalf of anybody else.

• I smiled from the heart, without a curfew

  nor

  bounds.

• She wants to leave the town when she is 21,

  nor

  does she want to move to the neighboring city.

• The fans do not want to see her go –

  nor

  do I.

• Cooking does not mean a sacrifice of flavors and taste.

  Nor

  do all fast-food items are junk.

• I am almost never up at 5 in the morning,

  nor

  would I like waking up at 6 am.

• The report was finished on time,

  nor

  are there any mistakes in it.

• He did not hear the birds

  no

  r the clock.

Here are sentences that use both “neither” and “nor”: 

• The trip was

  neither

  great

  nor

  bad – it just was.

• Having said that,

  neither

  Tim

  nor

  I smoke.

• Neither

  that behavior

  nor

  that statement is helping reduce the tension.

• Neither

  Mr. Wood

  nor

  Mr. Terrence showed up for the meeting held yesterday.

• I can

  neither

  offer you advice

  nor

  an opinion.

• I

  neither

  like pizza

  nor

  fancy the cheese.

• She drinks

  neither

  beer

  nor

  wine.

• Neither

  Mary

  nor

  Tom can speak Spanish.

• Neither

  dogs

  nor

  cats are permitted into the restaurant.

• Tony was a complete wreck, and I am quite sure

  neither

  Jacob

  nor

  I was any better.

• Neither

  my dad

  nor

  my mom went to college.

Conclusion 

The conjunction “nor” offers a lot more options to link two or more sentences or create lists. However, in the process of doing so, quite a few adept writers could end up making errors atypical of them. It’s, therefore, imperative to pay close attention to sentence structure and formation when using “nor” and other conjunctions. 

If you are a newbie writer or a non-native speaker working on their English, particularly writing in the language, above are some major pointers for your perusal.

 

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