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Today on Ask a Teacher, we answer a question from Mehdi in Iran.
今天的名师答疑节目中，我们回复伊朗的马赫迪提出的问题。
He writes:
他写道：
Please explain about either/or and neither/nor. – Mehdi, Iran
请讲解一下either/or 和neither/nor——伊朗，马赫迪。
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。
English speakers use either … or to talk about a choice between two things.
讲英语的人用“either……or”来讨论两者之间的一个选择。
On a beautiful spring day, one can say, "I will either ride my bicycle or walk to work."
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。”
In this example, the structure with verbs is: EITHER verb OR verb.
在这个例子中，连接动词的结构是：EITHER连接动词加OR再连接动词。
You can also use either…or with nouns.
你也可以用either……or连接名词。
For example, when it is time to eat lunch, I may tell my coworker, "I feel like eating either Chinese or Indian food today.
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。”
The structure is: EITHER noun OR noun.
这个句子的结构是：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。
We use neither … nor when the speaker will not choose from the options given.
当说话者不会选择给出的任何选项时，我们使用neither……nor。
My friend is getting married at a seaside town in New Zealand.
我朋友正在新西兰的一个海滨小镇结婚。
She says, “Neither rain nor snow will ruin the wedding.”
她说：“不管是刮风还是下雨都无法破坏这场婚礼。”
The structure is the same here: NEITHER noun NOR noun.
这句话也是一样的结构：NEITHER连接名词加NOR再连接名词。
You can use neither…nor with verbs, too.
你也可以使用neither……nor来连接动词。
One can say, "My brother is very healthy - he neither smokes nor drinks."
可以说：“我哥哥非常健康，他既不抽烟也不喝酒。”
The structure is: NEITHER verb NOR verb.
这句话的结构是：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.
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。
For example, “Sandy does not play either football or cricket.”
例如，“桑迪既不会踢球，也不会打板球。”
There are two ways of pronouncing either and neither.
either和neither有两种发音。
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."
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/。
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."
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。
