You Say Either, and I Say Either

The 1937 film Shall We Dance featured a song by George and Ira Gershwin, in which Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire debated pronunciation as a proxy for personal style. It’s a bonbon of a film, and, if you have never seen it, do try to rent it—because it’s an intelligent bonbon. The most-quoted lines of the film’s best-known song, “Let's Call the Whole Thing Off,” are:

“You say either, and I say either;

You say neither, and I say neither.”

The tomayto-tomahto line is also very familiar, and Ms. Picky would love to print all the lyrics, but, since they’re under copyright, the best she could do was to give you the link above and let you read it for yourself.


Now, you might think that Ms. Picky is about to tell you which is the “correct” pronunciation of either or neither. Not so. The state of the either-either debate today is that neither side has won, and both factions have simply decided, “Love the song, tired of the debate,” and pronounce the words as they choose, without discussing the reasons for their choices or defending them. Brits say eye-ther. Some Americans prefer ee-ther; some prefer eye-ther. 


Ms. Picky herself chooses to say ee-ther, but both pronunciations are correct, and so she is completely indifferent to her readers’ choices in this regard. What Ms. Picky is decidedly not indifferent to, however, is the words’ being treated as plurals. These two words are singular, as is the pronoun “none,” and all three words take singular verbs and singular referential personal pronouns.

Either and Neither

Correct:

Neither the pistachio flan nor the tarte au chocolat is available. Would you like crème brûlée or mango sorbet instead?
Either is fine.

He will bid on the Kutch tea service or the Kashmiri tray; either is beautiful.

Neither the provenance nor the quality is in any doubt.

None

Consider none as “not one.” Since it is singular, it takes not only a singular verb, but also a singular personal pronoun.

Incorrect:

None of them have changed their minds.

None of them have any bonds in their portfolios.

Correct:

None of them has changed her mind.


None of them has any bonds in his portfolio.

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The Journalism Wall of Shame

The Journalism Wall of Shame displays errors in grammar, punctuation, or language that have appeared recently in the press. Submissions are welcome. Please include the publication's name and date, the story title, and the reporter's name. The publication of these errors in no way places blame for them on a particular person. Sometimes it is the reporter, sometimes the editor, sometimes the headline writer, but—somewhere in the system—somebody should have known better.

“As I found out yesterday during my CNBC appearance, woe betide he who suggests otherwise.”

—“Farr: Double Dip Recession? The Emperor’s Naked,” CNBC.com, June 8, 2011

If Mr. Farr is going to get biblical, he should get biblical right. “Betide” is a transitive verb and takes the objective case. He should have said, “. . . woe betide him who suggests otherwise.” The fact that the object of betide is a pronoun referenced by a subsequent relative clause does not alter the fact that, as the object of the verb “betide,” it should be in the objective case.

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 Photo: From the RKO film Shall We Dance, with Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire, 1937.

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