A month ago, I gave a comic introduction about me in my English class. During my flow of words, I told, "…I have neither a brother nor a sister". Everyone laughed at me all of a sudden. The professor corrected me, "You shouldn't use this construct in this sentence and started teasing me, etc…"
He asked another fellow student to correct me. That guy said, "I have no siblings" which was declared as the right way. None of 'em said why can't I use "Neither… nor" and why should I use a new word..?
It's bugging me for a while. Can someone explain me?
Best Answer
There's nothing grammatically wrong with what you said, and there's nothing stylistically wrong. However, if I were to hear someone say "I have neither a brother nor a sister", I'd expect something like "but I do have a {dog/cat/hamster/gerbil}" next.
I don't know where your English teacher is from, but most of the American- and British-speakers I know would never say anything so formal as ""I have no siblings". Siblings is too formal and scientific-technical a word for most of us. Most native speakers would probably say "I don't have any brothers {and / or[CHOOSE ONE]} sisters".
Everyone has their own idea of what is proper to say and what the proper way to say it in any particular context. There are no stringent rules in English about these types of idiomatic expressions. I, for example, would probably say "I have no brothers or sisters", rather than "I don't have any...". I might, if a little tipsy, say something like "I'm brotherless and sisterless, but not dogless", but that would be a weak attempt at humor.
I'd suggest that "I don't have any brothers or sisters" is the norm for most native speakers, and I recommend that that's the expression to use, but I'm sure that others will chime in here if it isn't for them.