Page 89 - Basic English Usage

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107 108
oy
107 either
...
or...
We use either ... or ... to talk about a choice between two
possibilities (and sometimes more than two).
You can either have tea or coffee.
/ don't speak either French or German.
You can either come with me now or walk home.
Either you leave this house or I'll call the police.
If you want ice-cream, you can have either lemon, coffee or vanilla.
For pronunciation see 106. For either as a determiner (with a noun) see 106.
For not either, neither or nor, see 217.

108 ellipsis (leaving words out)

We often leave words out when the meaning is clear without them.

At the beginning of a sentence
In an informal style, we often leave out articles (the, a/an) possessives
(my, your etc), personal pronouns (/, you etc) and auxiliary verbs (am,
have etc) at the beginning of a sentence.
Car's running badly.( = Thecar's ... )
Wife’s on holiday.( = My wife's ... )
Couldn't understand a word. (= I couldn't understand ... )
Seen Joe?(= Have you seen Joe?)

With and, but and or
If the same word comes in two expressions that are joined by and, but
or Or, we can usually leave out the word once.
He sang and (he) played the guitar.
Would you like some tea or (some) coffee?
young boys and (young) girls
in France and (in) Germany
He opened his eyes once, but (he) didn't wake up.
We can leave out more than one word.
She washed (her jeans) and ironed her jeans.
You could have come and (you could have) told me.

After auxiliary verbs
We can use an auxiliary verb instead of a complete verb, or even
instead of a whole clause, if the meaning is clear. The auxiliary verb
usually has a ‘strong’ pronunciation (see 358).
‘Get up.’ ‘| am/eem/.’ (= ‘1 am getting up.’}
He said he'd write, but he hasn’t.(= ... hasn't written)
/ cant see you today, but | can tomorrow.