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Use of "nor" with "cannot"?
Hello, I have a grammar question. In the sentence, "The seaguls cannot cross ___ inhabit the North Pole," should the blank be filled with "nor" or "or?" A friend is suggesting "nor," however, I feel that "or" has a better flow (both logically and phonetically). I can't find anything about it online, except for the fact that Google always corrects a sentence which includes "nor" used in this context. For an example, try to search for "He cannot walk nor run."
If anybody could let me know the proper answer, it would be great, especially if they could hook me up with an authoritative document regarding this case.
Ninja, your answer approximates a coherent response, however, it doesn't cover this situation. Note that you demonstrated "not this BUT that." However, remember that neither objects are true. The gulls cannot cross AND they cannot inhabit. Clearly, the optimal situation would be a neither-nor agreement, however, this question specifically regards "cannot do this ___ do that."
Sorry, "Random_JPG" not "Ninja"
No idea why I kept trying to write "ninja."
5 Answers
- Anonymous1 decade agoFavorite Answer
I'm not sure you'll find an "authoritative document"; a corpus search - that is, seeing how it's used by respectable writers - is usually a better way to resolve this kind of usage question.
As far as I can tell, historically "cannot ... nor" and "cannot ... or" were coexisting forms.
* "Tongue nor heart cannot conceive nor name thee" - Shakespeare
* "Who cannot feele nor see the raine" - Shakespeare
* " vain things, which cannot profit nor deliver" - King James Bible
* "By a law which I can clearly comprehend, but cannot evade nor resist ..." - Frederick Douglass
* "He cannot now see very distinctly: he cannot read or write much;" - Charlotte Bronte
* " It is not my fault that I cannot eat or rest" - Emily Bronte
* "whose story doggrel rhymes and ale-house signs cannot so degrade or attenuate" - Charles Lamb
* "that Congress, even by an express act, cannot annul or control it." - Daniel Webster
* "I cannot recall or separate one young face that gave me a painful impression" - Charles Dickens
However, a quick skim of the hits counts suggests that "cannot ... nor" has declined as idiom, and that "nor" tends to be reserved for "neither ... nor" or when the options are written in full.
"The seagulls cannot cross the North Pole, nor can they inhabit it"
would be fine, but when they're not, the options tend to be parsed as a single entity, as if it were:
"The penguins cannot cross-or-inhabit the North Pole"
My gut feeling is that "or" is far more idiomatic; it's the one I'd use.
Source(s): Native UK English speaker - Anonymous1 decade ago
Well if you take into consideration that two negatives make a positive, you should use or. personally i would put
The seagulls can neither cross or inhabit the North Pole.
- oddLv 71 decade ago
"Nor" is used instead of "or" when you have a negative like cannot, will not: 'You may neither eat nor talk during the test.' 'He neither ate the pie nor touched it; contrary to what he was accused of doing.'
'Use of the word 'nor' in these examples is neither incorrect, nor awkward.'
not "this" but "that"
either "this" or "that"
neither "this" nor "that"
"Conjunction Junction, what's your function?" Schoolhouse Rock
- 1 decade ago
That would be using double negatives, so I would use another word to replace nor such as and or or.
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- Anonymous1 decade ago
use or, you can not have double negatives.
