Correlative Conjunctions Part 2. Either, or.

We use either, or, a paired

conjunctions to show two different options. Not both, but one or the other. When
connecting two subjects with either,
or, the verb will agree with
the subject closest to it. >> What? >> That's my ex boyfriend,
I really don't want him to see me. >> All right, you've got two options. You could
either wear this mask or
you could wear this special disguise. >> I'll take the mask. >> Okay, good choice.
He'll never recognize you. >> All right, Jake doesn't want to
be recognized by her ex-boyfriend. The first option was to wear the mask. The
second option was
to wear the disguise. Jake had a choice. She could wear either the mask or
the disguise, and she chose the mask. Notice the two parts being correlated. That
is the two parts that
come after either and or. Are they clauses, subjects,
verbs, or objects? That's right, they are objects. Okay, let's move on to our final
pair of conjunctions, neither, nor. We use neither and nor, to emphasize two
negative elements within a sentence. When using neither and nor
to connect two subjects, the verb agrees with
the subject closest to it. Careful, do not use a negative
verb with neither and nor. Neither, nor already communicates not. >> This is just
wonderful. >> What? >> I lost my shoe again. >> Not again. There it is. >> What!
How did it get up there? >> I don't know. >> We're never going to reach it up
there. >> I can't reach. >> I can't reach! Ugh. >> Jake can't reach the shoe. Emily
can't reach the shoe. Neither Jake nor Emily can reach the shoe. Notice that the
verb in each
of these first two sentences is negative, can't and can't. However when we combine
the two
negative sentences using neither nor the verb is no longer negative,
because neither and nor communicate its negative idea. Finally, I'd like to
give you a few examples of how we can maintain parallel structure
when using correlative conjunctions. Let's take a look at this
sentence which is incorrect. Why is it incorrect? All you need to do is look at the
elements
that come after neither and nor. First, we have nutritious food which
is an object or a noun phrase. And then what comes after, nor? Exercises. Is
exercises a noun phrase? Is it an object? No, it's a verb. So how can we make this
sentence grammatically correct? Well, here's one idea. We could say, Joe neither
eats nutritious food nor exercises. Okay, let's try that same test again. What
comes after neither? It's a verb phrase. And what comes after nor? It's also a verb
phrase. So we've got ourselves a good sentence. All right, let's try one more. This
sentence is incorrect. Can you figure out why. Well, what comes after not only.
This is a clause and what comes after but also. Fun.
Is that a clause? No way. That's an adjective. Let's see how we can fix this
sentence. I'm going to make learning
English the new subject. Learning English is not only rewarding,
but also fun. All right,
now we can see what comes after not only. Rewarding, which is an adjective. And
what comes after but also? Fun, which is also an adjective. We've got a match, so
it's a good sentence. In this lesson you have learned
about correlative conjunctions. Thank you for listening,
see you next time.