[Grammar] I will call somebody else, not neither him nor you

[PromVille]

I have a sentence

I will call neither you nor him

I guess it means

I won't call neither you nor him

Out of it it's not clear whether I will call anyone at all but I want to say that I will call but among the people I will call there will be neither you nor him. Can I say it like

I will call somebody else, NOT neither you nor him

or should it be like

I will call somebody else, neither you nor him

I am worried NOT neither you nor him = 2 negations which is a bad grammar.

 

[Rover_KE]

Welcome to the forum.

Students reading this post will wonder why an English teacher has failed to end every sentence except the last with a punctuation mark.

I have a sentence.

What is the source of that sentence?

I will call neither you nor him.

That means 'I will not call you and I will not call him'.

That's just about all you can infer from that sentence.

 

[teechar]

I won't call neither you nor him

That's ungrammatical.

[STRIKE] Out of it[/STRIKE]

It's not clear from that sentence whether I will call anyone at all, but I want to say that I will call [STRIKE]but among the people I will call there will be[/STRIKE] someone but neither you nor him. Can I say it [STRIKE]like[/STRIKE] as follows?

I will call somebody else, NOT neither you nor him

If you remove "not" and end it with a full stop, it can work.

I will call somebody else, neither you nor him

See above.

I am worried "NOT neither you nor him"

involves negations which is bad grammar.

Yes, see above. "Not neither" is wrong.

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

I have a sentence

I will call neither you nor him.

I guess it means:

I won't call either you or him.

It's not clear whether I will call anyone at all, l but I want to say that I will call someone, but if I call anyone, it won't be you or him. Can I say it like this?:

I will call somebody else, NOT either you or him

or should it be[STRIKE] like[/STRIKE]:

I will call somebody else, not you or him

I am worried NOT neither you nor him = two negations which is a bad grammar.

Right. It's called a double negative. That sentence is not natural, but in English they're common in casual conversation but are not grammatical.

We usually use:

- either/or
- neither/nor

Some people use neither/or, but never use either/nor!