Learn English – “Not … nor” possible

adverbsgrammaticalityword-usage

I am looking for a band name. I am German, so I am not quite sure if not [Adjective] nor [Adjective] is grammatically correct.

Is not yellow nor pink or not famous nor envied a possible phrase, or should I use neither instead of not?

Best Answer

Both neither and nor can be used to mean "also not", so in many cases they are interchangeable.

I would prefer neither, as in:

Neither hot nor cold.

But an example I found in this dictionary went like this:

"John does not drive."

"Nor does Janet."

Although this isn't the same sentence the second speaker is not making a complete coherent sentence, they are appending the first, so this shows that "nor" can follow "not".

Personally though, I wouldn't get too hung up on this when it is a band name. You are being creative, and band names need to sound and look good.

There are bands with made-up words for names like The Beatles (a portmanteau of beat and beetles). There are bands with phonetic names like XTC. Some bands deliberately spell their name wrong like The Byrds or Phish. And for no grammatical sense whatsoever look no further than The The.

Be creative with your band name and save your best grammar for your lyrics!

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