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Grammar & Usage

Or or And in Negative Sentences?

Tanya TruslerJuly 25, 2013

"Prejudices, it is well known, are most difficult to eradicate from the heart whose soil has never been loosened or fertilised by education…"

—Charlotte Brontë

The idea for this post came to me when I was editing some materials on likes and dislikes. In those lessons, sentences such as I don’t like tomatoes, and I don’t like celery, either were used. In this case, and is used, but I remembered how or must often be used in negative sentences such as I don’t like tomatoes or celery.

This used to confuse my students so much! They’d naturally want to write I don’t like tomatoes and celery, because they didn’t like both things. This kind of question always appears in tests like the TOEIC as well. So how do we explain it to students?

Or = not joining independent clauses

In English, or is used in negative sentences to join two or more nouns, pronouns, adjectives, adverbs, verbs, dependent clauses, etc. To recognize a negative sentence in English, look for adverbs such as not or never.

Trick #1

Tell students that if not is used once, they will most likely need or.

  • I don’t like apples or oranges.
  • English isn’t quick or easy to learn.
  • My friend doesn’t want pork, beef, or fish for dinner.
  • He never reads books or watches TV after class.
  • I didn’t say that you could eat my food or that your friends could come over.

Trick #2

It might help to tell students to think of the full conjunction pairs of both…and and either…or.

  • She likes (both) apples and oranges.
  • She doesn’t like (either) apples or oranges. (We would never say She doesn’t like either apples and oranges.)

And = joining independent clauses

In English, and is used in negative sentences to join two independent clauses.

Trick #3

Tell students that if not is used twice, they will most likely need and.

  • I don’t like basketball, and I don’t like volleyball, either.
  • Mr. Lutz doesn’t want to meet today and he doesn’t want to meet tomorrow, either.

Point out to your students that while these constructions are possible, they’re quite long and cumbersome, and native speakers often prefer the shorter versions with or (I don’t like basketball or volleyball; Mr. Lutz doesn’t want to meet today or tomorrow.)

Exceptions

Exception #1

We can use and when it’s not joining independent clauses to show that the items are joined (act as one unit—e.g., peanut butter and jelly). To avoid confusion, I recommend only pointing this out to higher-level students. Compare the difference:

  • I don’t like peanut butter or jelly. (I don’t like peanut butter. I don’t like jelly.)
  • I don’t like peanut butter and jelly. (I don’t like peanut butter and jelly together, but I might like them separately.)

Exception #2

Don’t forget that even though words such as hate or dislike have a negative meaning, not isn’t used, so and is used to join two or more parts of speech.

  • I dislike apples and oranges. (I dislike apples or oranges is incorrect.)
  • She hates rain and snow. (She hates rain or snow is incorrect.)

I hope your students aren’t confused or defeated by these conjunctions anymore!

Tanya

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Comments (88)

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neide (Guest)

Very clarifying! Tks!

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Anonymous A.(Teacher)

Very enlightening. It's funny the things we just do naturally, often without being taught, and don't recognise in our own language until they're pointed out. Very helpful and interesting.

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Tanya Trusler(Author)

Thanks, Neide and Tracey! And it's very true...I learned so much about English when I started teaching it. We're not usually aware of all the grammar rules in our own language until we have to explain them to someone else.

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Hal Moore(Guest)

Tanya, can you help me understand the grammatical meaning of this sentence? "No one knows the day and hour of His return." Thanks in advance for helping me understand this sentence. Hal

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laogui (Guest)

I was correcting an entry at italki.com, in which the (Chinese) student had written '... without electronic toys and smartphones' and asked why I had corrected her 'and' to 'or', was it because of the 'without' and yes of course it was; but how to express this as a rule of grammar, and how many such words are there?

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Tanya Trusler(Author)

Hi Laogui,

You bring up a very good point. English has other negative words besides the usual 'not' and 'never'. The rule remains the same, though: Use 'or', not 'and', if there is a negative word in the sentence (that refers to the items being joined). Other such words include no, none, nothing, either, and, as you mentioned, without. I'm sure there are more, but that's all that are coming to me at the moment. If anyone can think of words to add to this list, please leave a comment! :)

hamid (Guest)

what about 'nor'?
do you think that we should use 'nor' with negative sentences ?

I don't like apples nor oranges

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Tanya Trusler(Author)

Good question, Hamid! You can use 'nor' in negative sentences, but remember that it's quite formal and not commonly used nowadays. When you use 'nor' you almost always use 'neither', and you will NEVER use 'not'. Think of the 'n' in the words 'neither' and 'nor' as already having the meaning of 'not'.

All of the following examples have the same meaning. #1 is the most common and #3 is the least common.

  1. I don't like apples or oranges.
  2. I don't like either apples or oranges.
  3. I like neither apples nor oranges.

Hope that helps!
Tanya :)

wing (Guest)

thank you very much for this. It is very helpful. Can the same rule apply to positive sentences? For example, is it correct to say, 'I like apples or oranges'?

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Tanya Trusler(Author)

Hi Wing,

Good question! No, it's not possible to use 'or' for a positive sentence when you mean 'both.' In positive sentences, 'or' is used for a CHOICE.

Examples:
- Which do you prefer, apples or oranges?
- Do you like apples or oranges better?
- Do you want apples or oranges for dessert?

The answer will only be one of the two nouns.
Hope that helps! :)

Niloo (Guest)

Good..thanks
I was confused..thanks for your good description

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Tanya Trusler(Author)

You're very welcome, Niloo!

Nina (Guest)

Thanks. That's very helpful.
However, I do have some situation here:
1. She doesn't have a diary and an address book, but has some pens in her bag.
2. She doesn't have a diary or an address book, but has some pens in her bag.
Can I say both sentences are correct? And how can I explain that both sentences are acceptable in what context, please?
I hope I'm not asking an invalid question.

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Tanya Trusler(Author)

Hi Nina,

No questions are ever invalid! I'm glad you asked this one, because it can be confusing.

Grammatically speaking, your second sentence with 'or' is correct ('She doesn't have a diary or an address book, but she has some pens in her bag.') The meaning is that she doesn't have a diary and she doesn't have an address book. (Note that I've added a second 'she' because it is more common to include a subject after a comma, especially with a switch from negative to positive.)

The first sentence doesn't sound as good. Native speakers naturally use 'or' with negative sentences, although some people can and do easily make this mistake. It's not a huge problem because the meaning is clear (and the meaning would be the same as the second sentence, that she doesn't have a diary and she doesn't have an address book). However, I wouldn't teach that first sentence to my students.

Hope that helps! :)

PPP (Guest)

Great article. One concern: all your examples occur in the predicate. Do your tricks apply to the subject? And does this affect the subject/verb agreement? Can the following sentence be improved without using the formal 'nor'?:

John or Mike isn't coming to the party.

Thanks!

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Tanya Trusler(Author)

Good question! The rules above do not apply to the subject of a sentence. So your example, 'John or Mike isn't coming to the party' is not correct. Instead, we could say:

Neither John nor Mike is coming to the party.
or
John and Mike aren't coming to the party.

To help students with subject-verb agreement, tell them to think of it as 'neither ONE of them IS coming' for the first example, and 'THEY ARE not coming' for the second. Thanks for your question!

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Mitsu (Guest)

Q1 「臨床症状として、息切れ、喀血、胸痛、水泡音は認められなかった。」の英訳のうち、
医薬文書として最もふさわしいものは以下1～3のどれか。
(Which sentence among 1 to 4 is the best one for a official medical document in order to mean as below?
'[Findings for] Clinical symptoms:
Shortness of breath: none
Hemoptysis: none
Chest pain: none
Rhonchi: none')

  1. Clinical symptoms including shortness of breath, hemoptysis, chest pain, and rhonchi were not noted.

  2. No clinical symptoms of shortness of breath, hemoptysis, chest pain, and rhonchi were noted.

  3. No clinical symptoms of shortness of breath, hemoptysis, chest pain, or rhonchi were noted.

  4. Any clinical symptoms of shortness of breath, hemoptysis, chest pain, and rhonchi were not noted.

  5. Any clinical symptoms of shortness of breath, hemoptysis, chest pain, or rhonchi were not noted.

Q2. Q1 の選択肢 2 において、「息切れ、喀血、胸痛、水泡音」が同格とならず、「No」が「symptoms」と「rhonchi」にかかるように読める可能性はあるか。
(In the sentence '2' of Q1 items, can 4 words of 'shortness of breath', 'hemoptysis', 'chest pain', and 'rhonchi'
be regarded as not in the same rank, like a sentence saying 'No clinical symptoms or rhonchi were noted.' ?)

Q3. Q1 の選択肢 3 において、「息切れ、喀血、胸痛」が認められず、「水泡音」が認められた、と読める可能性はあるか。
(In the sentence '3' of Q1 items, can the sentence be regarded as 'present: shortness of breath, hemoptysis, and chest pain; none: rhonchi' ?)

Q4. Q1 の選択肢 1 において、「including」を使用してもよいか、また、「of」よりもふさわしいといえるか。
(In the sentence '1' of Q1 items, is the use of word 'including' correct? Is it better than 'of'?)

I beg you will sympathize with me, and it would be extremely appreciated if you give me a helpful advice.
Sincerest regards,

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Tanya Trusler(Author)

Hi Mitsu,

A1. Sentences 1 and 3 are both correct. I think sentence 3 sounds the best ('No clinical symptoms of shortness of breath, hemoptysis, chest pain, or rhonchi were noted.'). Note that sentences 2, 4, and 5 don't sound natural, in my opinion.

A2. I'd say that sentence 2 reads the same as sentence 3, but the 'and' sounds like an error to me.

A3. No. Sentence 3 reads as 'All four of these symptoms were not present.' So there were no symptoms of shortness of breath / no symptoms of hemoptysis / no symptoms of chest pain / no symptoms of rhonchi. If this is your meaning, sentence 3 works well.

A4. Yes, 'including' sounds natural in sentence 1 and sounds better than 'of,' especially because you wouldn't want to have 'of' twice so close together ('Clinical symptoms OF shortness OF breath...').

Hope that helps!

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