Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

syoshioka99 · Joined: 28 Oct 2005 Posts: 185 Location: Korea

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1) Either of the students may fail the exam.

Question: Can the sentence 1) mean "Both of the students may fail the exam."?

2) Either of you is right.

Question: What does this sentence mean? Does it mean like..."Both Tom and Bob is right." or "Only Tom[Bob] is right."?

Satoru

Tochigi, JAPAN

Chiristmas is just around the corner. Are you ready for it? I gotta work on the eve and the day of Chiristmas...

ab · Joined: 16 Oct 2005 Posts: 81 Location: Sydney, Australia

in 1.) and 2.) either menas both of them
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ab2146

flaps · Joined: 29 Nov 2005 Posts: 39

hi,
I asked about either/both last week. Lotus answered the first part kindly.
here is the last part of my question.

I was wathching a decoration programme and the woman said : " ...you
should sew either sides (or side ;can't remember exactly)of the cushion.
Would it be wrong to use each side here?

ab · Joined: 16 Oct 2005 Posts: 81 Location: Sydney, Australia

" ...you should sew either side" means to sew only one side,BUT to sew each side means to sew both
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ab2146

flaps · Joined: 29 Nov 2005 Posts: 39

well,
how come either means one?

in all previous examples either meant both Confused

ab · Joined: 16 Oct 2005 Posts: 81 Location: Sydney, Australia

either implies "one or the other", if you wanted to sew both sides you'd say both or each, or a word with plural meaning.

either is a conjunction used between two alternatives

Either is an English pronoun, adjective, and conjunction, meaning one, or the other, of two. Its origin is from Old English ǽghwe�er, which literally analyses as a compound word "any - whether."

Either/or means "one, or the other,BUT NOT BOTH
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ab2146

flaps · Joined: 29 Nov 2005 Posts: 39

hi,
thanks for your answer. but in your answer to that japanese guy, you said either meant both.

how come it means one now? ( and the woman in the decorating programme sewed both sides of the cushion)

Lucas Scott · Joined: 15 Dec 2005 Posts: 50 Location: Suzhou, China

flaps · Joined: 29 Nov 2005 Posts: 39

Why are things getting chaotic?
everyting started on the 5th Dec like this:

ab · Joined: 16 Oct 2005 Posts: 81 Location: Sydney, Australia

the original Question was:
Question: What does this sentence mean? Does it mean like..."Both Tom and Bob is right." or "Only Tom[Bob] is right."?

the question refered to this sentence:
1) Either of the students may fail the exam.

Like i said in the very first response i sent to this post, the statement "Either of the students may fail the exam" means that both Tom and Bob may fail.
The question asked who was likely to fail, NOT WHAT DOES EITHER mean.

Keep trying "Flas", it will all make sense before to long
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ab2146

flaps · Joined: 29 Nov 2005 Posts: 39

well ab,

I guess you don't wanna talk about this anymore but I am never satisfied until everyting is crystal clear in my mind, sorry.

lotus's answers to my questions prove that either (when used with words like side, case etc) means both. I'm not talking about either... or... structure.