Oris a conjunctionthat connects two or more possibilities or alternatives. Itconnects words, phrases and clauses which are the same grammatical type:
Which do you prefer? Leatherorsuede?
You can have some freshly baked sconesorsome chocolate cakeorboth.
We useorafter the negative form of a verb, instead ofand.
| I like both tea and coffee. |
| I don’t like tea and I don’t like coffee. |
When we connect two or more nouns usingor, we use a singular verb with singular nouns, and a plural verb with plural countable nouns:
A banjoora mandoliniswhat we need.(singular nouns)
I think more picturesorornamentsareneeded in this room.(plural nouns)
See also:
Conjunctions
Either … or
For emphasis, we can useeither…or:
You can payeitherby cashorby credit card.(the same as:You can pay by cash or by credit card.)
The negative form ofeither … orisneither … nor:
NeitherJoenorMaria will be at the wedding.
In more formal language we sometimes usenorinstead ofor, even whenneitheris not used. It sometimes comes after a pause when someone adds another option:
No one knew from where they came –norto where they went.
See also:
Conjunctions
Neither, neither … norandnot … either
Typical errors
We useor, notand, after the negative form of a verb:
There weren’t any facilities at all. There were no bathrooms, telephonesoreven pillows.
Not:There were no bathrooms, telephones and even pillows.
We only useorto connect alternative possibilities. We useandwhen we mean ‘in addition to’:
In this essay, I will discuss both the advantagesanddisadvantages of killing animals for food.
Not:I will discuss both the advantages or disadvantages…
See also:
And