So and Neither: Short Responses of Agreement

 

In the American television show Saturday Night Live, actors make jokes of realistic situations and people, like politicians and sports personalities¹. In one program, for example, sports reporters Pete and Greg discuss a women’s curling game between Finland and Paraguay. But it soon becomes clear that they do not understand the game.

A player from Paraguay scores and the men say this:

Pete: What an amazing curl – knocking team Finland right out of the house! Look at that – she is fired up. Bingo!

Greg: Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. I have no idea what is happening.

Pete: Neither do I, buddy². The rules of this game are baffling to me.

You just heard Pete say, “Neither do I” to show agreement with Greg’s statement. Pete is saying that he also has no idea what is happening.

Very short responses like this are extremely common for English speakers around the world. We use them in speech and informal writing every day.

In English, we can use the words so, neither, too and either to say that what is true for some person is also true for us. In today’s program, I will talk about so and neither.

The word so shows agreement with positive statements. And the word neither shows agreement with negative statements. You will hear and see examples of both today.

How they are formed

But first, we will talk about how to form these statements.

In a usual English statement, the subject comes first and is followed by the verb. The structure is:

subject + verb + rest of sentence

For example, if I say, “We visited a beautiful beach,” the subject is we followed by the verb, visit.

But when we use so and neither to show agreement, the structure changes. The subject comes at the end and we mainly use an auxiliary³ verb. The structure is:

so / neither + auxiliary / be + subject

Auxiliary verbs are helping⁴ verbs that do things like form verb tenses. They can include do, be, have and others.

In Pete’s statement “Neither do I,” for example, the word neither is followed by the auxiliary verb do and the subject I.

To show agreement using so and neither, the choice of verb and tense in the response depends on the original statement.

So do I / Neither do I

Let's start with the simple present verb tense and I will show you what I mean.

We can say, “So do I” and “Neither do I” to agree with statements in the simple present tense.

Listen to an exchange between speakers:

Manny loves seafood⁵! So do I.

I walk to work every day. So do I.

We do not think he’s right. Neither do I.

Sima does not have a dog. Neither do I.

To demonstrate the form, all responses today will use the subject I. But other subjects can be used, such as a person’s name, a thing or a pronoun. For example:

Sima does not have a dog. Neither does Manny.

So Am I / Neither Am I

Now on to the verb be.

To agree with simple present statements when the verb is be, we can say, “So am I” and “Neither am I.”

Listen to how the speakers use them:

Kayla is allergic⁶ to milk. So am I.

We are not at the show. Neither am I.

We also use “So am I” and “Neither am I” to agree with statements in the present continuous verb tense. This tense is sometimes called be + -ing.

I am leaving for the summer. So am I.

Khadi is not teaching online. Neither am I.

So did I / Neither did I

Now, we will move to the simple past tense.

We can say, “So did I” and “Neither did I” to agree with statements in the simple past tense.

I wonder what our speakers will say this time:

My sister loved the surprise party. So did I.

I did not bring my library card. Neither did I.

So was I / Neither was I

And lastly, we can say, “So was I” and “Neither was I” to agree with simple past statements when the verb is be.

Listen to how the speakers use them:

They were tired after the flight. So was I.

Ramy was not in the group. Neither was I.

Well, I’ll stop there.

We do not have time in this program to talk about other verb tenses and modal auxiliary verbs such as can and should.

What can you do?

Still, there's a lot you can do with what you learned! For example, check for today’s uses of so and neither as you read stories, listen to music and watch shows and films in American English.

And, when possible, try responding to other English speakers with today’s shortened responses. Don't be afraid to make mistakes! Have fun with it. Soon, the responses will come more naturally. I promise.

So do we!

I’m Alice Bryant.

Words in This Story

curling – n. a game in which two teams of four players slide special stones over ice toward a circle

bingo – n. an expression that means “Yes, that’s right!”

baffling – adj. very confusing

response – n. something that is said or written as a reply to something

positive – adj. affirming a truth or fact of something

negative – adj. expressing denial or refusal of something

tense – n. a form of a verb that is used to show when an action happened

practice – v. to do something again and again in order to become better at it

1 personalities   

n. 诽谤，（对某人容貌、性格等所进行的）人身攻击； 人身攻击；人格, 个性, 名人( personality的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• There seemed to be a degree of personalities in her remarks.她话里有些人身攻击的成分。
• Personalities are not in good taste in general conversation.在一般的谈话中诽谤他人是不高尚的。

2 buddy   

n.（美口）密友，伙伴

参考例句：

• Calm down,buddy.What's the trouble?压压气，老兄。有什么麻烦吗？
• Get out of my way,buddy!别挡道了，你这家伙！

3 auxiliary   

adj.辅助的，备用的

参考例句：

• I work in an auxiliary unit.我在一家附属单位工作。
• The hospital has an auxiliary power system in case of blackout.这家医院装有备用发电系统以防灯火管制。

4 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

5 seafood   

n.海产食品，海味，海鲜

参考例句：

• There's an excellent seafood restaurant near here.离这儿不远有家非常不错的海鲜馆。
• Shrimps are a popular type of seafood.小虾是比较普遍的一种海味。

6 allergic   

adj.过敏的，变态的

参考例句：

• Alice is allergic to the fur of cats.艾丽斯对猫的皮毛过敏。
• Many people are allergic to airborne pollutants such as pollen.许多人对空气传播的污染物过敏，比如花粉。