Learn English – Using neither…nor with ever

adverbsconjunctionsnegation

Example:

I never drink tea. I never drink coffee.

I wonder how I can connect the above sentences using neither…nor. Is it correct:

I drink neither ever tea nor ever coffee.

Best Answer

The simplest way to combine the sentences is to use the coordinating conjunction "or":  "I never drink tea or coffee."  That works, but it doesn't use a correlative conjunction.

The simplest correlative conjunction for this sentence is "either ... or":  "I never drink either tea or coffee."  This also works, but it doesn't use the exclusionary conjunction "neither ... nor".

There is a simple, obvious structure that uses "neither ... nor":  "I drink neither tea nor coffee."  The problem with this version is that the notion of "ever" ("never" in the original sentences) has been lost.

The sentence "I ever drink neither tea nor coffee" doesn't seem well-formed.  The best I can do is tack the adverb on the end of the sentence: 

I drink neither tea nor coffee, ever.

I can't explain why "I ever drink neither tea nor coffee" seems ill-formed.  I can, however, explain why "I drink neither ever tea nor ever coffee" doesn't work.  The "ever" is an adverb.  Placing it in front of "tea" and "coffee" makes it look like it's trying to be an adjective.

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