Weder ... oder / weder...noch - neither nor

sfpugh

January 11, 2019

From 17.5

Und ja manches stimmt natürlich, keine Frage. Wir Deutschen sind pünktlich, weder zu spät oder zu früh.

And yes, some is true of course, no question. We Germans are punctual, neither too late nor too early.

Are Weder ... oder and weder... noch interchangeable? I thought that "neither ... nor" was Weder...noch and that "Either...or" was Entweder...oder. This is what is given in my grammar book.

sfpugh

January 13, 2019

I tried Googling weder ... oder and found very few examples and they were not usually translated as neither ... nor.

I asked my German friend about this and she said that the sentence was not incorrect but she probably have translated it as "never to late or too early" rather than neither... nor.

As far as I can tell, the sentence from 17.5 is the only occurrence of "neither ... nor" in the whole course so if it is going to be used, would it not be better to use the usual form weder ... noch?

Leah-Rocket-German-Tutor

January 15, 2019

Hi sfpugh,

thanks for pointing this out. Your German friend is right.

It is not incorrect to say weder...oder... but sounds slightly odd to a native German speaker.
I will change that in the course.

Danke und liebe Grüße,
Leah von Rocket Languages

Weder ... oder / weder...noch - neither nor

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