# 1036 - Either vs. Neither - What’s the Difference?

An episode of [Happy English Podcast (Natural American English)](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/884643408), 20 Apr 2026, 8:43.

Audio: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/71475083/1036_either_vs_neither_what_s_the_difference.mp3

I don’t smoke. Me neither. I don’t drink. I don’t either. Hmm… so which one is it? Either? Or neither? Or maybe a better question is - when should you use either, and when should you use neither? Should you say, “I don’t smoke either”? Or “Me neither”? Or maybe… “I don’t smoke neither”? Yeah… that last one doesn’t sound right. So what’s going on here? If you’ve ever felt unsure about using either and neither, you’re going to want to listen to this lesson. Because today, we’re going to look at how to use these words naturally in everyday conversation. The Happy English Podcast Helping people speak English better since 2014 Over 1,000 episodes • 8 million downloads 📘 Get free weekly English lessons plus instant access to my FREE Vocabulary Workshop.: https://learn.myhappyenglish.com/free-english-lessons 🎥 Watch video versions of the Happy English Podcast on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@HappyEnglishNY/podcasts 🌐 Learn more about my English lessons and courses https://www.myhappyenglish.com

## Transcript

[0:00] Speaker 1: I don't smoke, me either, I don't drink I don't either. Hmmm,
[0:05] Speaker 1: So which one is it? Either or neither? Or maybe
[0:10] Speaker 1: the better question is when should you use either and
[0:14] Speaker 1: when should you use neither? Should you say I don't
[0:20] Speaker 1: smoke either, or me neither, or maybe I don't smoke neither. Yeah,
[0:27] Speaker 1: that last one doesn't sound right. So what's going on here?
[0:31] Speaker 1: If you've ever felt unsure about using either and neither,
[0:38] Speaker 1: you're going to want to listen to this lesson because
[0:40] Speaker 1: today we're going to look at how to use these
[0:44] Speaker 1: words naturally in everyday conversation.
[0:51] Speaker 2: Welcome to another Happy English podcast, coming to you from
[0:54] Speaker 2: New York City, and here's your English teacher, Michael.
[0:59] Speaker 1: All right, thank you John, and thanks everyone. It's Michael
[1:04] Speaker 1: here from Happy English and I help people speak English better.
[1:09] Speaker 1: And this is Happy English Podcast, Episode one thousand and
[1:14] Speaker 1: thirty six. Either versus neither? What's the difference? Here's a
[1:21] Speaker 1: basic idea that will help you remember everything we're going
[1:25] Speaker 1: to talk about today. We use either with a negative verb,
[1:31] Speaker 1: and we use neither as a negative by itself. Let's
[1:37] Speaker 1: dive in. First up, is either we use either at
[1:43] Speaker 1: the end of a sentence. When the verb is negative,
[1:48] Speaker 1: either means also not or me too in a negative way.
[1:55] Speaker 1: For example, imagine your friend says I don't smoke. You
[2:00] Speaker 1: can reply, I don't smoke either. Let's examine that closely.
[2:06] Speaker 1: Your friend used a negative verb, I don't smoke. The
[2:12] Speaker 1: rule is use either with a negative verb, so you
[2:16] Speaker 1: can say I don't smoke either. That means the same
[2:22] Speaker 1: is true for you. Here's another example. Your coworker says
[2:28] Speaker 1: I didn't understand that meeting. If you agree, you can say, yeah,
[2:35] Speaker 1: I didn't understand it either. Again, you're agreeing in a
[2:41] Speaker 1: negative way. Or maybe your friend says I don't like
[2:46] Speaker 1: spicy food. You can reply I don't like it either,
[2:52] Speaker 1: or just I don't either. I dropped the main verb
[2:57] Speaker 1: because it's already understood. So the key point is this,
[3:02] Speaker 1: when you use either, the sentence already has a negative
[3:07] Speaker 1: verb like don't, can't or not. I don't either, I
[3:13] Speaker 1: can't either, I'm not either. And by the way, here's
[3:18] Speaker 1: how we use either in real everyday conversation. We usually
[3:23] Speaker 1: drop the verb and don't repeat everything. We drop what's
[3:28] Speaker 1: already obvious. Your textbook probably taught you like this. When
[3:34] Speaker 1: Jack says I don't like celery. You reply, I don't
[3:39] Speaker 1: like celery either, but you know me, I like to
[3:43] Speaker 1: teach you how people really talk. So when Jack says
[3:47] Speaker 1: I don't like celery, you can simply say I don't either.
[3:52] Speaker 1: Here's one more. If Jenny says I'm not going to
[3:57] Speaker 1: Jack's party, the natural rep apply is I'm not either. Again,
[4:03] Speaker 1: the meaning comes from the context. Now, let's look at neither.
[4:10] Speaker 1: The word neither is a combination of not plus either,
[4:17] Speaker 1: not either neither. See how that works. Neither is already negative,
[4:26] Speaker 1: which means you don't need a negative verb. For example,
[4:30] Speaker 1: instead of saying I don't like coffee and I don't
[4:34] Speaker 1: like T, you can say I like neither coffee nor tea.
[4:41] Speaker 1: That means not coffee and not t. Here's another example.
[4:47] Speaker 1: I have neither time nor money to go there. That
[4:52] Speaker 1: means I don't have time and I don't have money.
[4:56] Speaker 1: And notice the pattern neither a nor And remember, since
[5:02] Speaker 1: neither is already negative, we don't use a negative verb
[5:06] Speaker 1: in the same sentence. I like neither coffee nor tea.
[5:12] Speaker 1: I like I have neither time nor money to go there.
[5:18] Speaker 1: I have neither. Now let's compare these ideas because This
[5:25] Speaker 1: is where things often get confusing. You can say I
[5:29] Speaker 1: don't smoke and I don't drink either. Here both verbs
[5:35] Speaker 1: are negative, so we use either. But you can also
[5:39] Speaker 1: say I neither smoke nor drink. Here neither makes the
[5:45] Speaker 1: whole sentence negative, so the meaning is the same, the
[5:49] Speaker 1: structure is different. And here's a very common mistake you
[5:54] Speaker 1: might hear, even from native speakers, I don't smoke neither.
[6:00] Speaker 1: This is a double negative, and it doesn't really sound
[6:03] Speaker 1: natural unless it's a kind of slang situation. It's better
[6:08] Speaker 1: to say I don't smoke either. Now let's look at
[6:13] Speaker 1: one more very common conversational pattern. If someone says I
[6:19] Speaker 1: don't like horror movies, you can reply me neither me neither.
[6:25] Speaker 1: This is a very natural way to agree with a
[6:29] Speaker 1: negative statement. You can also say I don't either. Both
[6:35] Speaker 1: are correct me neither. I don't either, and both are
[6:40] Speaker 1: used all the time in conversation, so pick the one
[6:44] Speaker 1: you like. And, by the way, conversational replies are not
[6:49] Speaker 1: the only way we use either and neither. We also
[6:53] Speaker 1: use these words when we talk about situations in general.
[6:58] Speaker 1: For example, I asked my buddy ed about the hotel
[7:02] Speaker 1: he stayed at, and he said it had neither a
[7:07] Speaker 1: gym nor a pool. In this case, neither makes the
[7:12] Speaker 1: whole idea negative. On the other hand, you can also
[7:16] Speaker 1: use either in a negative sentence, like where I live
[7:20] Speaker 1: now this town doesn't have a subway or a bus either,
[7:26] Speaker 1: so again the verb is negative, doesn't have and we
[7:31] Speaker 1: use either at the end. So remember, neither makes the
[7:36] Speaker 1: sentence negative and either goes with a negative verb. So
[7:43] Speaker 1: here's your challenge. Try writing some sentences with either and
[7:47] Speaker 1: neither like the examples you just heard. Because the best
[7:52] Speaker 1: way to remember English like this and any other word
[7:55] Speaker 1: or phrase, is to take that word or phrase, write
[7:59] Speaker 1: it in a sentence that's true for you or true
[8:02] Speaker 1: in your world, and then memorize your sentences. Hey, thanks
[8:06] Speaker 1: for listening, and remember learning another language is not easy,
[8:10] Speaker 1: but it's not impossible, and I'm here to help you
[8:14] Speaker 1: on your journey.
[8:17] Speaker 2: This podcast is brought to you by Happy English. Please
[8:20] Speaker 2: visit Myhappy English dot com show your support for Happy
[8:25] Speaker 2: English by leaving us a review. Get English, Get Happy,
[8:29] Speaker 2: Happy English.

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