Learn English – Is this usage of ‘nor’ correct

grammaror-nor

Without the accompanying neither, it can be difficult to know whether or not to use nor.

Is this correct, or should or be used here instead?

We do not have the equipment needed to measure buoyancy nor air volume.

Best Answer

  • We do not have the equipment needed to measure buoyancy nor/or air volume.

Either "nor" or "or" can be used.

It is up to the style you wish to follow as to which one might be preferable.

Your example is somewhat similar to the examples in CGEL, page 1309:

Nor appears as a coordinator paired correlatively with neither ([50.i]), or non-correlatively as a variant of or in negative contexts ([50.ii]):

[50]

i.a-b . . .

ii.a The change won't be as abrupt as in 1958 nor as severe as in 1959.

ii.b No state shall have a share less than 50% nor more than 70%.

ii.c Serious art is not for the lazy, nor for the untrained.

In [ii] nor could be replaced by or, which is much more common: the version with nor perhaps gives added emphasis to the negation. . . . The difference is that in [i] all the coordinates are marked as negative, whereas in the non-correlative [ii] the first coordinate (as abrupt as in 1958, etc.) is not marked as negative within the coordination itself, but falls within the scope of a preceding negative.

Your example is similar to those in [50.ii] in that your first coordinate ("buoyancy") falls within the scope of the negative "not".

Note that CGEL is the 2002 reference grammar by Huddleston and Pullum et al., The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language.

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