# Either ... or ... or



## vince

Hello everyone,

I'd like to know how your languages say "either ... or...or"

And whether "either" is the same word as "or" here 

Because I believe Romance languages use the 3rd person singular subjunctive of _esse_ to mean both either and or, among other ways of saying it.

So you have soit/sia/seja...soit/sia/seja

 I'm wondering if this is a peculiarity of Romance languages or if other languages have a similar way of saying it.

How does your language say it?


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## Whodunit

In German:

entweder ... oder



> Because I believe Romance languages use the 3rd person singular subjunctive of _esse_ to mean both either and or, among other ways of saying it.
> 
> So you have soit/sia/seja...soit/sia/seja


 
Isn't it "ou ... ou" in French?


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## werrr

In Czech: buď ... nebo
In Slovak: buď ... alebo

"nebo/alebo" = "or"

"Buď" is derived from imperative form of verb "být" (=to be).


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## moldo

As far as I know (I'm native) in the Dutch language we have not a distinction in either .. or.

We simply say "of.. of..of.."  (or = "of" either = also "of")

Another possibilty is "hetzij ... hetzij ..." Again, no distinction.

Regards, Moldo


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## linguist786

Whodunit said:
			
		

> Isn't it "ou ... ou" in French?


No - it's soit/soit

J'étudierai soit le français soit l'allemand l'année prochaine. 
(I will either study French or German next year)

In *Hindi/Urdu/Gujarati*, I don't think there's a word for "either" - it is expressed according to the context. The word for "or" is "athvaa" (aspirated "t"). There is also a very simple word "yaa" that is used colloquially.

Taking the french example above:
(It can be said in many ways)

Aayindaa saal mai French athwaa (or _yaa_) German parungaa.
(Next year I will study French or German)
Aayindaa saal mai French athvaa/yaa German parungaa - dono mai se ek.
(Next year I will study French or German - one of the two) more emphatic than first one
Aayindaa saal mai French parungaa, na to phir German.
(Next year I will study French, if not then German)

^^That's Urdu/Hindi by the way. It's the same concept in Gujarati.


Moe


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## Whodunit

linguist786 said:
			
		

> No - it's soit/soit
> 
> J'étudierai soit le français soit l'allemand l'année prochaine.
> (I will either study French or German next year)


 
Are you 100% sure? Look at our oh so reliable dictionary. I don't think you are wrong. But "ou ... ou" doesn't seem to be wrong either. 



> Aayindaa saal mai French athwaa (or _yaa_) German parungaa.
> (Next year I will study French or German)
> Aayindaa saal mai French athvaa/yaa German parungaa - dono mai se ek.
> (Next year I will study French or German - one of the two) more emphatic than first one
> Aayindaa saal mai French parungaa, na to phir German.
> (Next year I will study French, if not then German)


 
Do you really use "French" and "German" in those languages?


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## linguist786

Whodunit said:
			
		

> Are you 100% sure? Look at our oh so reliable dictionary. I don't think you are wrong. But "ou ... ou" doesn't seem to be wrong either.


Ah yes, so it is. I've never used "ou... ou" myself though.

De toute façon, il n'a pas fallu aller jusqu'au dictionnaire de www.dict.leo.org - on en a un ici sur WR 


			
				Whodunit said:
			
		

> Do you really use "French" and "German" in those languages?


Oh the amount of English that is said in UR/HI/GU is unbelievable - you'd be surprised!
I suppose I was a bit lazy at the time when I posted that lol - the actual word for "french" is "fraansi" and German is the same. (obv. pronounced the English way - probably with an Indian accent )


Moe


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## panjabigator

German would be "jarman" lol.


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## Whodunit

linguist786 said:
			
		

> Ah yes, so it is. I've never used "ou... ou" myself though.


 
At least you admit that there's yet another version than "soit ... soit". 

I think it'd be better to wait for the French natives.



> De toute façon, il n'a pas fallu aller jusqu'au dictionnaire de www.dict.leo.org - on en a un ici sur WR


 
Oh, I was cheating on WR - unforgivable! 



> Oh the amount of English that is said in UR/HI/GU is unbelievable - you'd be surprised!
> I suppose I was a bit lazy at the time when I posted that lol - the actual word for "french" is "fraansi" and German is the same. (obv. pronounced the English way - probably with an Indian accent )


 
Oh this is interesting. Is there more English in Urdu than in German? - That would be almost record-breaking in having Anglicisms.


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## Whodunit

In Latin, there are several possibilities. At the moment, I can think of:

aut ... aut (meaning "or ... or")
vel ... vel (meaning "or also ... or also")
sive ... sive (meaning "be it ... or that")
seu ... seu (same as "sive")

... but I believe there are even more.


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## linguist786

Whodunit said:
			
		

> At least you admit that there's yet another version than "soit ... soit".  I think it'd be better to wait for the French natives.


Agreed 


			
				Whodunit said:
			
		

> Oh, I was cheating on WR - unforgivable!


Tut tut.. you ought to be punished.  No posting allowed for a day? Oh no - that would be too cruel! Especially when it's your BIRTHDAY!! 


			
				Whodunit said:
			
		

> Oh this is interesting. Is there more English in Urdu than in German? - That would be almost record-breaking in having Anglicisms.


Well in everyday spoken URD/HIN/GUJ, people insert English words all the time, even when there are words for them exclusive to URD/HIN/GUJ. It's just laziness I suppose.

On the other hand, there _are_ some words which are simply transcribed into the appropriate script that come straight from English.

And no - I would say German has _much_ more English words than Urdu!


Moe


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## linguist786

panjabigator said:
			
		

> German would be "jarman" lol.


Hehe yes, written जर्मन (89,600 results! - definitely the right word for it) and French (which in Hindi is actually "fraansi") is sometimes also transcribed to "french". ie - फ्रैंच (152 results, but still!) Just shows how lazy some people are to find the proper word! The proper word is फ्रांसी (fraansi), which Wikipedia proves.


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## jazyk

> Because I believe Romance languages use the 3rd person singular subjunctive of _esse_ to mean both either and or, among other ways of saying it.
> 
> So you have soit/sia/seja...soit/sia/seja


That's true, but we can also duplicate or:

Portuguese/French: ou ... ou ...
Spanish/Italian/Catalan: o ... o ...


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## Honour

i know that in french both ou-ou(bien) and soit-soit work.
in turkish we use ya-ya/veya.


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## Confused Linguist

*Bengali*

*hoy ..... noy*


Ami hoy Coke noy Fanta khabo.

*ami:* I

*hoy:* either

*noy:* or

*khabo:* (will/would like to) drink


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## robbie_SWE

There are three different ways to say "either...or...or" in Romanian. 

*Romanian*
_sau...sau_ = literally "or...or"
_fie...fie_ = (from the verb _to be_)
_ori...ori_ = (meaning "times...times")

In Swedish we say "*antigen...eller*". 

 robbie


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## Etcetera

In Russsian, we just say или... или.
For example, В следующем году я начну изучать или французский, или испанский. (Туче year I'll start to learn either French or Spanish).


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## amikama

Hebrew - it happens that it's said just as in Spanish...

*...או... או* (_o... o..._) "or... or..."


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## ukuca

in Turkish:
we say "*ya...... ya da ..........."*
it can be used both for *either...or* and *neither....nor*


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## Whodunit

ukuca said:
			
		

> in Turkish:
> we say "*ya...... ya da ..........."*
> it can be used both for *either...or* and *neither....nor*


 
You don't seem to agree with Turk's translations.


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## Maja

In Serbian we don't have a distinction between "either ... or" and it is simply  "ili... ili" (или...или). 
E.g. Either you do this or receive punishment! -  Ili to uradi ili ćeš biti kažnjen! (Или то уради или ћеш бити кажњен!).


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## ukuca

Whodunit said:
			
		

> You don't seem to agree with Turk's translations.


In fact I do. I just extended it.


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## Chazzwozzer

ukuca said:
			
		

> in Turkish:
> we say "*ya...... ya da ..........."*
> it can be used both for *either...or* and *neither....nor*


 
Do we really say _ya... ya da... _for _netiher... nor..._?

I don't think it can be used both. We normally say _ne... ne de..._ for _neither... nor..._

It all goes like:
*either... or...:* ya... ya da...
*neither... nor...:* ne... ne de...
*both... and....:* hem... hem de...

Think again.


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## Whodunit

Chazzwozzer said:
			
		

> Do we really say _ya... ya da... _for _netiher... nor..._?
> 
> I don't think it can be used both. We normally say _ne... ne de..._ for _neither... nor..._
> 
> It all goes like:
> *either... or...:* ya... ya da...
> *neither... nor...:* ne... ne de...
> *both... and....:* hem... hem de...
> 
> Think again.


 
What if it can be used as in English? It just uses the negative particle "not" + either ... or. 

I speak _neither_ German _nor_ English.
I don't speak _either_ German _or_ English.

Of course the latter is very rare, but I don't think it's wrong.


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## Chazzwozzer

Whodunit said:
			
		

> What if it can be used as in English? It just uses the negative particle "not" + either ... or.
> 
> I speak _neither_ German _nor_ English.
> I don't speak _either_ German _or_ English.
> 
> Of course the latter is very rare, but I don't think it's wrong.


 
Both of two sentences should be translated into Turkish by saying ne... ne de...

We can't use ya... ya da... there and adding 'not' makes no difference. It's always ne... ne de... for neither... nor... and ya.. ya da... for either... or...


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## Outsider

In Portuguese:

seja A, seja B --> correct, but sounds old-fashioned

ou A ou B --> how we usually say it

Plus I don't think you can always replace the latter construction with the former.


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## Bienvenidos

*Persian/Farsi:

Yaw - either/or

The first  'yaw' in the sentence is the  'either' and the second is the 'or'. 'Yaw' by itself is 'or'.


 

*


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## panjabigator

In Hindi as well, /yaa/ means "or."


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## AkErBeLtZ

In Basque we say:
*Ez ....-rik, ezta .... ere*
But we simply can say, also:
*Ez...... ez.......*


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## yueningsun

In Chinese, we usually express the same meaning in two ways.
First, similar to the "either...or..." type, we say "要么...要么..."
sometimes, we just omit "either", and say "A或B" or "A或者B"


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## Black4blue

It doesn't matter much.
If you use   "_*Ya... ya da...* (either... or...) + *negative*_", it is the same as  "_*Ne... ne de...* (neither... nor...) +* positive*_". Lol.

By the way, if there are more than 2 things;
Ya ___ ya ___ .........  ya da ___ (only the last one has *da*) 
or
Ya ___ ya da ___ ......... ya da ___ (only the first one doesn't have *da*)
Sigh, *de/da* means _also, as well, too_.


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## sakvaka

*Finnish*:
_joko...tai_

*Swedish*:
_antingen...eller_
_vare sig...eller_ (be it...or)
_varken...eller_ (neither...nor)


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## Orlin

Maja said:


> In Serbian we don't have a distinction between "either ... or" and it is simply "ili... ili" (или...или).
> E.g. Either you do this or receive punishment! - Ili to uradi ili ćeš biti kažnjen! (Или то уради или ћеш бити кажњен!).


 
BUlgarian uses или...или too.


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## apmoy70

In Greek:
1/ One can use the conj. «είτε» ('ite)-->Classical «εἴτε» ('eite) suppositive or interrogative conj. «εἰ» (ei) + enclitic particle «τε» (te), lit. _"sive, either"_.
2/ Or the conj. «ή» (i)-->Classical «ἤ» (ē), lit. _"or"_.
«Είτε» is generally doubled, είτε...είτε, although the structure is not strict, i.e one can use είτε...είτε, είτε...ή, ή...ή, ή...είτε etc.


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## CaruraLeam

Italian "o...o..."!


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## Dr. Quizá

In Spanish "o" is not exclusive, so "A o B" actually means "A and/or B". For an exclusive XOR we use another "o" in first place, "o A o B".


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## Saluton

Etcetera said:


> In Russsian, we just say или... или.
> For example, В следующем году я начну изучать или французский, или испанский. (Next year I'll start to learn either French or Spanish).



Yes, either или... или (*i*li... *i*li) or либо... либо (l*i*bo... l*i*bo).


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## Rallino

Black4blue said:


> It doesn't matter much.
> If you use   "_*Ya... ya da...* (either... or...) + *negative*_", it is the same as  "_*Ne... ne de...* (neither... nor...) +* positive*_". Lol.



I don't agree 

*"Ya birayı ya da viskiyi içmeyeceksin"* is the same as: _Ya birayı içmeyeceksin, ya da viskiyi içmeyeceksin. _So you're going to drink one of them.

While, _*

*_*"Ne birayı ne de viskiyi içeceksin"* is the same as: _Ne birayı içeceksin, ne de viskiyi içeceksin._ So you're not going to drink any of them.

Therefore, these 2 sentences aren't equal.

Don't you agree?


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## Duvelly

Hungarian: _vagy...vagy..._ (no distinction)
(neither...nor... = _sem...sem..._)


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## sakvaka

sakvaka said:


> *Finnish*:
> _joko...tai_



Oh, I forgot. _Neither...nor_ is _ei...eikä_.


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## Black4blue

Rallino said:


> I don't agree
> 
> *"Ya birayı ya da viskiyi içmeyeceksin"* is the same as: _Ya birayı içmeyeceksin, ya da viskiyi içmeyeceksin. _So you're going to drink one of them.
> 
> While,
> 
> *"Ne birayı ne de viskiyi içeceksin"* is the same as: _Ne birayı içeceksin, ne de viskiyi içeceksin._ So you're not going to drink any of them.
> 
> Therefore, these 2 sentences aren't equal.
> 
> Don't you agree?


 
OMG! Rallino you are definitely right! How did I make that mistake? I don't know how I thought they were the same. o_0


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## Rallino

Black4blue said:


> OMG! Rallino you are definitely right! How did I make that mistake? I don't know how I thought they were the same. o_0



Don't worry, sometimes it happens to me too! ^^


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## 810senior

In Japanese:
Either A or B - AかBか(の)どちらかA ka B ka (no) dochiraka (lit. _which one of A or B_ or _A or B, which one_)

c.f. You can only either eat or talk: 食べる*か*喋る*か*、*どちらか*にしてください。taberu ka shaberu ka dochiraka ni shite kudasai (lit. please do only which one, eat or talk)


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## ilocas2

werrr said:


> "Buď" is derived from imperative form of verb "být" (=to be).



In fact, "buď" is exactly, letter by letter, imperative form of verb "být" (= to be). It is also imperative form of verb "budit" (= to wake).


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