either — every use

• Determiner → "either option works" · before a singular noun
• Pronoun → "either of them is fine" · standing alone
• Correlative conjunction → "either A or B" · the matched pair
• Adverb → "I don't like it either" · end position, negatives only
• Noun → "a false either/or" · hyphenated

• "Either option works for me."
• "You can use either approach."
• "I don't like either answer."
• "Either candidate would be an improvement."

• ❌ "either options" → ✅ "either option" / "either of the options"
• ❌ "either of option" → ✅ "either of the options"

The pattern: either + singular noun, OR either of + the/my/these/those + plural noun, OR either of + plural pronoun.

This is the genuinely tricky part. With nouns describing two-sided things — side, end, hand, bank — either usually means each of the two, not one of the two:

• "There's a café at either end of the street." → two cafés, one at each end.
• "Trees grow on either side of the river." → both banks.
• "He had a child on either knee." → two children.

Compare the ordinary reading:

• "Either route will get you there." → one route, your choice.

Context does all the work here, and native speakers resolve it without noticing. When the difference matters, write both or each instead — the ambiguity is real and no rule removes it.

• "Either of them is fine."
• "I've read both reports; either is worth your time."
• "Have either of you seen the config file?"
• "I don't want either."

Formally, either as a pronoun is singular:

• ✅ "Either of the candidates is qualified." (formal, correct)
• ⚠️ "Either of the candidates are qualified." (very common in speech, criticised in writing)

In edited writing, use the singular. In conversation, nobody will notice the plural — and "Have either of you…" is standard even for careful speakers.

• "We can either extend the deadline or cut scope."
• "It's either a caching issue or a stale build."
• "Either the migration didn't run, or it ran against the wrong database."

Move either as far right as it will go — immediately before the thing that actually differs. ❌ "Either you can call me or send an email" → ✅ "You can either call me or send an email."

This role deserves its own full lesson, including proximity verb agreement and the neither … nor counterpart. (Not written yet.)

• "I don't like it either."
• "She hasn't replied either."
• "It's not fast, and it's not cheap either."
• "He didn't know, and his manager didn't either."

Ukrainian and Russian use the same word for both — теж / також, тоже / также — so the negative version comes out wrong:

• ❌ "I don't like it too."
• ❌ "I also don't know." (grammatical but non-native in this slot)
• ✅ "I don't like it either."
• ✅ "I don't know either."

The rule: positive → too. Negative → either.

• "I'm tired." — "Me too." / "I am too."
• "I'm not tired." — "Me neither." / "I'm not either."

• "Me neither." — the everyday default, all varieties of English.
• "Neither do I." / "Nor do I." — full form, note the inversion.
• "I don't either." — full form without inversion.
• "Me either." — American, informal, and disliked by many; safe to understand, safer not to write.

• "It's an either/or: read speed or write consistency."
• "That's a false either/or — we can phase it."
• "Don't frame it as an either-or situation."

Either is for two. Any is for three or more.

• ❌ "Any of the two options works."
• ✅ "Either of the two options works."
• ❌ "Either of the five candidates could do it."
• ✅ "Any of the five candidates could do it."

The Ukrainian «будь-який з двох» translates naturally into any of the two, which is why this error is so persistent. If the set is two, the word is either.

Both takes a plural verb and asserts the pair together. Either takes a singular verb and picks one.

• "Both options are viable." → the two of them, jointly.
• "Either option is viable." → whichever one you take.

Except with side / end / hand, where either leans toward the both meaning. See above.

Neither is either with the negative built in. One negative per clause:

• ✅ "I saw neither of them."
• ✅ "I didn't see either of them."
• ❌ "I didn't see neither of them." (double negative — Slavic interference)

And the pairing never crosses: either … or, neither … nor.

• one of them — two: either · three or more: any
• all of them — two: both · three or more: all
• none of them — two: neither · three or more: none

• "Either approach works; they fail differently under load."
• "You can pass either a string or a Buffer."
• "I don't see it in the logs either."
• "Neither of the two retries succeeded."
• "There's a race condition on either side of the lock." (both sides)
• "It's an either/or between bundle size and browser support."

Either<L, R> in typed functional code is this word as a type — a value that is exactly one of two things. If the type makes sense to you, the determiner will too.

• "Either Tuesday or Thursday works."
• "I haven't heard back from either of them."
• "Either way, we need to tell the client today."
• "It's not either/or — we can do a phased rollout."
• "Neither estimate accounted for the migration."
• "The designer didn't get the invite either."

• "I don't mind either way — you pick."
• "I haven't eaten either."
• "There's a pharmacy at either end of the street." (two pharmacies)
• "Either we leave now or we skip the coffee."
• "I'm not sure either, honestly."

• Directions: "It's on either side of the crossing." (both sides)
• Food: "Either place is fine — same street, same prices."
• Travel: "Neither the bus nor the trolleybus was running, and the taxi app wasn't working either." (a normal Chișinău Tuesday)
• Shopping: "Either size will fit."
• Weather: "Either way, take the jacket."

/ˈaɪðə/ (EYE-ther) and /ˈiːðə/ (EE-ther) are both fully standard. British speakers lean toward the first, Americans toward the second, but both are heard on both sides of the Atlantic. Same for neither. Choose one and stay consistent within a conversation — switching mid-sentence is the only version that sounds odd.

✌️ Either always means two. Two options, two sides, two people agreeing about a negative. If your set has three, the word you want is any — and if your sentence is positive, the end-position word you want is too.

either … or · neither … nor · both · too vs either — (none written yet).

1. either — with end, side, or hand, either means each of the two: there's a bakery at both ends.
2. either — the sentence already carries haven't. Neither would double the negative; any needs three or more.
3. Me neither. — agreeing with a negative. Me too only works after a positive statement.
4. Either … is — the set is two, so either, not any; and either as a pronoun takes a singular verb in careful writing.
5. either — negative sentence, so the end-position adverb is either. Too belongs to positives.