Newsgroup: it.cultura.linguistica.inglese
Titolo: either

Ciao a tutti,
se uso either come pronome con il significato di "entrambi" devo usare il 
verbo al singolare o al plurale:
"either follow" o "either follows" ?
Grazie Mauro

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"Either" significa "uno qualunque dei due".
- Would you like a Martini or a Manhattan?
- Either will do. (non si vede... ma è un singolare)
Hope I'm not mistaken...
Ciao, FB
-- 
This hat was made as a special request for a client who's a financial whizz
by day and a blues player by night. He was so happy with his hat I fear his
blues may suffer.

 on it.cultura.linguistica.inglese :
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Faresti un esempio?
Ad ogni modo...
http://www.bartleby.com/61/21/E0062100.html
When used as a pronoun, either is singular and takes a singular verb: The
two left-wing parties disagree with each other more than either does (not
do) with the Right. When followed by of and a plural noun, either is often
used with a plural verb: Either of the parties have enough support to form
a government. But this usage is widely regarded as incorrect; in an earlier
survey it was rejected by 92 percent of the Usage Panel. 


they behaviour in the same way, in fact, either follows the ohmic law:
(they è riferito a due tipi di conduttori)

 (they è riferito a due tipi di conduttori)
did you mean "they behave in the same way..."?
saluti,
Bluff 

Mauro wrote:
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"behaviour" e' sbagliato, dovrebbe essere "behave" anche "either follows"
dovrebbe essere "either can follow" o "both can follow". Si puo' dire "it
either follows" oppure "they either follow" ma non in questo caso, il
significato e' diverso.

 significato e' diverso.
si "behaviour" e' sbagliato, per fortuna ho fatto questa domanda cosě
 mi avete fatto notare l'errore...
Comunque,  perchč mi consigli di aggiungere "can" ?
Grazie
Mauro 

 dovrebbe essere "either can follow" o "both can follow".
Why "can"? It's a property, or characteristic, that they have, that Ohm's
law applies to them both [therefore they behave in the same way...]. 

 Comunque,  perchè mi consigli di aggiungere "can" ?
Per avere il significato chiaro. "Either" puo' significare 'l'uno ol'atro' e
non entrambe. Scrivendo 'can' il significato e' chiaro. Comunque, ho letto
quello che ha scritto Enrico C. Forse sarrebbe meglio in questo caso usare
"both" non e' necessario usare 'can' con 'both'.
they behave in the same way, in fact, both (of them) follow the ohmic law.

Enrico C wrote:
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I see, I was just trying to make "either" work.

 way...].
Allora cosi' a occhio direi che la parola che deve usare e' appunto
"both", non "either". "both follow".
-- 
Laz - [
http://www.dimensionedelta.net
]
"If love is blind I guess I'll buy myself a cane"

Giò
-Tutto ciò che può esistere, esiste.
          (Tullio Regge)

 >
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We usually say "Ohm's Law", at least here in the US.
The unit of conductivity (the inverse of resistance, or "ohms") is
often
called the "Mho" in the US, rather than the "Siemens".
Joe from Massachusetts


I would like to correct myself before I get your Reactance
to my Reluctance or Resistance to use the correct term
for the inverse of "Resistance", which is "Conductance",
not "conductivity".
I hope I didn't place any Impedance in the path of your
understanding of English.       :>)
Joe from Massachusetts