[Grammar] NEITHER OF THEM WENT/ BOTH OF THEM DID NOT GO

[Sahil Dhankhar]

This is not my homework.

Which of the following is correct and, if the both are correct, is there any difference in meaning?

1:-Neither of them went.
2:-Both of them did not go.


I am facing difficulty in this regard as some one suggested that neither of them went is wrong and should be corrected but at the same time someone suggested that they both are okay.

Now tell me are both of them grammatically correct?

P.S. :- "Neither of them did not go" in my opinion is wrong. Am I right?

Thanks for replying.

 

[SoothingDave]

Your two sentences are both OK and mean the same thing.

"Neither of them did not go" is gramatically OK, but unnecessarily convoluted.

 

[Rover_KE]

Only #1 sounds natural to me.

 

[MikeNewYork]

They do not mean the same thing.

There are two people. The first means that neither 1 or 2 went.
The second means that only 1 of them went.

 

[Sahil Dhankhar]

Excellent, now tell me, gramamr-wise, are all three correct? Please reply soon.

 

[konungursvia]

I agree with Dave and Mike. Sentence 2 is unnatural if you mean none went, and very rare if you mean the pair failed to go together. Generally, additive phrases (both, also, too, etc.) are not used in English sentences whose overall meaning is to negate. In French, you hear:
--Je ne sais pas. [I don't know.]
--Moi aussi. [Me too.]
But in English, at least in AmE, it sounds like the second speaker misheard or is confused. To show agreement with a negation, you need something limiting or negating (Me neither/nor do I/I don't either, etc.)

 

[Sahil Dhankhar]

Dear member,

I am preparing for a examination where I have to find the grammatical error. To be less used and to be grammatically wrong are two different things.
kindly tell me whether the British English Grammar allows the user to use the sentences or not.

 

[Raymott]

You have to realise that there is no such thing as "the British English Grammar" as an authorised set of rules. Some things are obviously grammatical, some things obviously not, and other things can be argued about.

 

[Sahil Dhankhar]

Dear member, please reply to my question also, which of the sentences are grammatically correct, even if they are rarely used, just tell me whether they are correct or not.

 

[emsr2d2]

You have already been told that they are both grammatically correct. There is a big difference between grammatically correct and natural.

 

[Sahil Dhankhar]

Thanks for replying.
As in spot the error exercises, I just have to find out the grammatical errors so my main focus is on whether a sentence is grammatically correct or not .

 

[emsr2d2]

Yes, we understand that. Unfortunately, many such exercises are poorly written and they actually give two grammatically correct sentences to choose between.

 

[Raymott]

Also, not all test-writers would necessarily use "grammatical" in the strict sense of "syntactically correct". Many people, including some teachers would call "Both of them did not go" ungrammatical.
As in most tests, it's advantageous to know what the marker believes.

 

[MikeNewYork]

I don't find "both of them did not go" ungrammatical. One could argue the meaning, but the grammar is clear.