Neither ... Nor

Welcome to A2K khorrami. English usage can be very confusing, but here is a link to examples of correlative conjunctions, and I hope it helps:

http://esl.lbcc.cc.ca.us/eesllessons/correlative%20conjunctions/corrconj.htm

A correlative conjunction must link similar types of words
Your example uses two nouns (homework, shower) but have otherwise
no similarity. A better sentence choice would be:

He neither did his homework nor his other chores. Or

He not only hasn't done his homework but also forgot his books.

Neither ... Nor
Thanks all. But my question is: "Is it obligatory that we always invert subject-verb order in sentences with "Neither ... nor" at the beginning? For example,

Neither did he do his homework, nor took a shower.
Neither he did his homework, nor took a shower.

Are both sentences correct, or just the first one?
Thanks in advance.

khorrami, I am not certain why you think it is obligatory to invert the subject-verb order when using correlative conjunctions. Frankly, that type structure is awkward sounding to me.

I think, my friend, that you are trying to combine two different things. The use of "homework" and "shower" together really don't fit for effective communication.

This is better:

He was so tired that he did neither his homework nor his laundry.

If you're correlating predicates rather than subjects, then you wouldn't place "neither" at the beginning of the sentence at all. You would write:

"He neither did his homework nor took a shower."

The examples you gave ("Neither did he do his homework, nor took a shower" and "Neither he did his homework, nor took a shower") are not quite proper English, though the first one is marginally more acceptable than the second one.

Only if you are correlating subjects rather than predicates is it common to place "neither" at the beginning of the sentence. In such cases, you don't invert the subject-verb order:

"Neither he nor his pal Jimmy did his homework or took a shower."




This sentence isn't quite linking similar types of words either, is it? It's linking "did his homework" (a verb phrase) and "his other chores" (a noun phrase). Seems like the things that follow "neither" and "nor" should be one or the other, but not both. How about:

"He neither did his homework nor did his other chores."

or

"He did neither his homework nor his other chores."

help
We should either visit the art museum or attend a concert this weekend.
Please help with this sentence, Parallel structer linking words.

Re: help


What kind of help do you need? Are you trying to separate the sentence into its parallel parts? If so, it would look like this:

"We should visit the art museum this weekend or we should attend a concert this weekend."

But if this is not your question, feel free to specify what kind of help you need.