How to use SO & NEITHER in English: "So do I", "Neither am I"...

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My name is Emma, and in today's video I'm going to teach you about something we use

a lot in conversation, and that is the words: "So" and "Neither".

So, how do we use these in conversation?

Well, I want you to think about a conversation you've recently had with somebody.

A lot of the times when we talk to people, we want to contribute something to the conversation

and we want to show that we agree with someone.

So, for example, maybe I'm talking about pizza.

"I like pizza."

If you want to tell me that you agree with me, you can use the word: "So do I." Okay?

So, you can use this expression; it starts with "So", then we have a verb, a helping

verb, and then we have the person; in this case, it's "I".

Okay, so: "So do I."

Let me ask you another question.

Well, not a question.

Let me say something that I believe.

"I really like music."

Do you like music, too?

If you do, when I say: "I like music", you can say: "So do I" because you agree with

me; you like music, too.

Now...

So, that's when we use "So", and we'll have a lot more examples in a moment.

Let's just talk a little bit about "Neither" for a moment.

We use "Neither" when we're talking about something negative, so something that has

the word "not" in it or...

You know, for example: "I do not like pizza.

I don't like pizza."

If I say something like this in a conversation, you can agree with me, and you can say: "Neither

do I".

"I don't like pizza."

You say: "Neither do I", if you agree with me.

So, let's do some examples together.

"I speak English."

If you wanted to add to the conversation and show you agree and you have the same experience,

you can say: "So", then we can add: "do", and then you can say: "I".

Okay, let me think about something else.

"I don't speak Klingon."

This is a language from Star Trek.

"I don't speak Klingon."

If you wanted to add to this conversation, you can say-so, we have here it's a negative;

it has the word "not"-"Neither do I."

So, we use "So" and "Neither" when we want to show agreement with what somebody's saying

in a conversation.

So, let's look at some more examples of that.

So, so far we've talked about: "So do I" and "Neither do I".

To show agreement with what somebody's saying.

What about if we want to talk about somebody else?

Well, we have "So" here, but we can actually change the pronoun we use when we're talking

about someone else.

So, if you're talking to somebody, you can say: "So do you."

Or maybe, you know, I say: "I love traveling."

And maybe you have a sister who loves traveling, you can say about your sister: "So does she."

We can also do, if there's you and somebody else, you can use the pronoun "we"; or if

you're talking about a group of other people, you can use the pronoun "they".

So, before I had "I", but you can actually use any of these or you can use somebody's

For example: Drake.

So: "I live in Toronto.

So does Drake."

We both live in Toronto.

I never see Drake, but we both live in Toronto, so I can say: "I live in Toronto, and so does

Now, did you notice I did something different with the verb?

The verb has to be in agreement with the pronoun.

So, when we use "you", this goes into "do": "I do", "you do".

For "he" and "she", the verb, in this case we call this a helping verb - the helping

verb goes into "does": "she does", "he does", so we invert it.

"So does he.", "So does she.", "So do we.", "So do they."

Drake is "he", so we would put: "So does Drake."

The point is: It needs to match.

The pronoun and the verb need to match.

What about "Neither"?

Well, it's the same.

"I don't live in Australia.

Neither does Drake.", "neither do you", "neither does he", "neither does she", "neither do

we", "neither do they".

So, it's important that the verb matches the pronoun.

But notice that "So" and "Neither" are at the very beginning of the sentence.

So, they always have the same place.

Okay, so let's look at some other examples of ways we can use "So" and "Neither" in conversation.

Okay, so we talked about that for the majority of verbs you hear, when somebody's saying

in conversation: "I like", "I don't like", "I hate", "I love", "I play sports" - if you

agree, you usually use the word "do": "So do I", "Neither do I".

But there are times where we don't use the word "do", and we'll use a different helping

verb or auxiliary.

So, I'm going to give some examples of when we would use a different helping verb.

If I tell you: "I can play the piano", "can" is considered a helping verb because it helps

the word "play".

Or we can call it an auxiliary; they mean the same thing.

But notice there's two verbs: "I can play", so "can" is helping the word "play".

So, if I want to use...

If I want to show agreement: "I also play the piano", then I need to use the same helping

-"I can play the piano."

-"So can I."

So, you don't need to use the verb "play".

You just need to use the helping verb.

Usually we use "do", but if you see a helping verb...

If somebody uses a helping verb, you use the same helping verb.

So, that might sound confusing, but if you look at some examples it will become clearer

Let's think about something else you can do.

"I can snap my fingers."

If you can snap your fingers, what can you say to the conversation?

You can add: "So can I." Okay?

"I can play basketball."

What can you say, if you want to add to the conversation?

You can say: "So can I."

So, we use "can" a lot with "So".

We can also use it with "Neither".

For example: "I can't whistle."

You know whistling, like: "[Whistles]".

I'm terrible at whistling.

"I can't whistle", so what you can say is, if you can't, you can agree with me and you

can say: "Neither can I".

"I can't scuba dive."

If you can't scuba dive, you can say: "Neither can I."

So, those are when we use the word "can".

What are some other helping verbs you might see?

Well, if we're using the present perfect, you might see "have": "have traveled".

So, "traveled" is the verb, but we have the helping verb, which is "have".

"I have eaten a sandwich.", "I have watched many movies."

So, this is the present perfect.

"I have traveled to France."

If you have also traveled to France and you want to say this, you can say: "So have I."

So, the verb here is the same as the helping verb here.

-"I have eaten spaghetti."

-"So have I."

And it goes with the negative, too.

"I have never been to Antarctica."

You can say: "Neither have I." Okay?

If we're talking about the past, the past tense, we also need to change the verb.

So, before we talked a lot about "do".

If we're talking about the past, we need to change the verb to "did".

So, for example: "Yesterday I washed my hair."

If you did the same thing, you can say: "So did I." Okay?

"I ate a sandwich yesterday."

If you ate a sandwich, you can say: "So did I."

You also do the same thing when we have the verb: "is" or "are", and "isn't".

So, for example, in this case: "John isn't happy."

Maybe I want to talk about my friend Mark who also isn't happy, I can say: "Neither

You know: -"Sammy is happy."

-"So is Peter."

So, the main thing here is you want to match this or the auxiliary in your response; it

always has to match.

So, we've covered a lot today; we've covered: "So", "So do I", and "Neither" or "Neither

do I".

What I would invite you and recommend that you do is come check out our website at www.engvid.com,

and there you can actually take a quiz to practice a lot of the grammar concepts you've

You can also check out my YouTube channel where you'll find a lot more resources on

pronunciation, grammar, writing, vocabulary, and all sorts of other things.

So, thank you for watching.

I've really enjoyed this experience, and I hope you can say: "So did I."

So, until next time, take care.