entweder

German

Etymology

From Middle High German eintwëder, einwëder, Old High German einwedar, einhwedar. The first part is unrelated to ent-, but rather a reduced form of the pronoun ein to which the -t was seemingly only added in Middle High German, with weder as the second part.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɛntveːdɐ/

• Audio (Germany (Berlin)):

  (file)

Conjunction

entweder

1. either (only with oder)

   entweder … oder ― either … or

Usage notes

• Used only in the pair "entweder … oder", like "either … or" in English.
• Syntactically, entweder may be treated like a coordinating conjunction or like an adverb. In the latter case, word order inversion takes place without there being any change in meaning. Compare:

Entweder du gehst nach Hause oder du bleibst noch.

Entweder gehst du nach Hause oder du bleibst noch.

Either you go home or you stay some more.

See also

• weder (“neither … nor”)
• eintzweder (nonstandard)
• entzweder (nonstandard)

Further reading

• “entweder” in Duden online
• “entweder”, in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache‎^[1] (in German)