名师答疑:Either, Or 和 Neither, Nor的用法

    Today on Ask a Teacher, we answer a question from Mehdi in Iran. He writes:
    今天的名师答疑节目中,我们回复伊朗的马赫迪所提出的问题。他写道:

    Question: Please explain about either/or and neither/nor. – Mehdi, Iran
    提问:请讲解一下either/or 和neither/nor--伊朗,马赫迪。

    Answer:
    回复:

    Dear Mehdi,
    亲爱的马赫迪,

    The words either, or and neither are kinds of conjunctions, or words that join parts of a sentence together.
    either,or以及neither这些单词都是连词,也就是将句子结构各部分连接到一起的单词。

    Either…or
    要么……要么,或

    English speakers use either … or to talk about a choice between two things. On a beautiful spring day, one can say, "I will either ride my bicycle or walk to work." In this example, the structure with verbs is:
    讲英语的人用either……or来讨论两者之间的一个选择。在一个美丽的春天,人们可以说:“我要么骑自行车,要么步行上班。”在这个例子中,连接动词的结构是:

    EITHER verb OR verb
    EITHER连接动词加OR再连接动词。

    You can also use either…or with nouns. For example, when it is time to eat lunch, I may tell my coworker, "I feel like eating either Chinese or Indian food today. The structure is:
    你也可以用either……or连接名词。例如,到了吃午饭的时间,我可以跟同事说,“我今天想吃中餐或印度餐。”这个句子的结构是:

    EITHER noun OR noun
    EITHER连接名词加OR再连接名词。

    We understand that the speaker will choose only one of the two things.
    我们知道,说话者会选择这两者中的一个。

    Neither…nor
    既不……也不,两者都不

    We use neither … nor when the speaker will not choose from the options given. My friend is getting married at a seaside town in New Zealand. She says, “Neither rain nor snow will ruin the wedding.” The structure is the same here:
    当说话者不会选择给出的任何选项时,我们使用neither……nor。我朋友正在新西兰的一个海滨小镇结婚。她说:“不管是刮风还是下雨都无法破坏这场婚礼。”这句话也是一样的结构:

    NEITHER noun NOR noun
    NEITHER连接名词加NOR再连接名词。

    You can use neither…nor with verbs, too. One can say, "My brother is very healthy - he neither smokes nor drinks." The structure is:
    你也可以使用neither……nor来连接动词。人们可以说:“我兄弟非常健康,他既不抽烟也不喝酒。”这句话的结构是:

    NEITHER verb NOR verb
    NEITHER连接动词加NOR再连接动词。

    But if a sentence already has a negative word like "not," it is more common to use either. For example, “Sandy does not play either football or cricket.”
    但是如果句子中已经有一个像not之类的否定词,我们就更多使用either。例如,“桑迪既不会踢球,也不会打板球。”

    There are two ways of pronouncing either and neither. People in both the United States and Britain may say either with /i:/ at the beginning, as in "EE-thur" or with /ai/ at the beginning as in "EYE-thur." Choose one pronunciation and stay with it, so you will say the pair of words as "ee-thur" and "neethur" or say this pair: "eyethur" and "nyethur."
    either和neither有两种发音。美国和英国的人们可能要么把开头的字母读成/i:/,要么读成/ai/。这两种发音随便选一个并固定下来,这样这组单词就读作“ee-thur”和“neethur”,或是“eyethur”和“nyethur”。

    And that's Ask a Teacher.
    以上就是本期名师答疑的全部内容。

    I’m Jill Robbins.
    我是吉尔·罗宾斯。(51VOA.COM原创翻译,禁止转载,违者必究!)