Thread: How do you pronounce "either"?

I know that two variants are possible. At school we have been taught to say the first part as in "eye", although the "ee" pronunciation seems more wide-spread lately. I wonder what is more common for different regions and for the English in general.

I know that in the US, it is pronounced both "ee-thur" and "eye-thur" with a pretty even distribution among people. Sort of a preference thing. I know some people(including myself) who will unconsciously say it both ways in a couple sentences if it crops up again.

Yea, we... for the most part say both... just whichever one pops out of your mouth. I can say it one way, and in the next sentence, say it the other way, doesn't really matter.

i say eye-thir i guess it depends on your geographical vanaciular

For the most part I say it both ways. But for instance if some asks me to decide between two things and I cant make up my mind, I would probably say "Either or". In that case I would never pronounce it 'eye-thur', it sounds a bit strange. At least to my ears.

Hi there,
Either (eye) is the British pronunciatin
Either (ee) is the American pronunciation.
As a Brit from southern England, I never say "eethur"
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I would agree with most people here:

"eyether" is the British way
"eether" is the American way, but I still use them totally interchangeably, and if you recorded my conversations, you'd probably find me saying them an equal amount. It really makes no difference where you are as far as I can see.

Originally Posted by Cheerful

Hi there,
Either (eye) is the British pronunciatin
Either (ee) is the American pronunciation.
As a Brit from southern England, I never say "eethur"
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As another Brit from southern England, I'd have to disagree. I say eethur all the time .. my dictionary says that both variants are possible, and doesn't distinguish between British and American (the Oxford Dictionary for Advanced Learners - it always distinguishes different pronunciations in the phonetic transcription e.g ad'vertisement (Br), adver'tisement (Am)).

FWIW I teach my students that they can say it either way

I notice that the Americans (East/Mid-West) tend to say "eye" when they want to emphasize, especially in the end of a sentence: "I don't like eye-ther!". When it is not stressed, they pronounce in a kinda relaxed way, so that a slight movement of their tongue may make it "eye" or "ee", seemingly randomly. The Brits have too many dialects to say for sure.

hello waxing

Of course you can say the two ways BUT when I was growing up in Harrow, no-one said "eether". I tell my students that there are 2 pronunciations. The American pronunciation is far more accepted than it used to be. Nevertheless, I NEVER say "eether".

Bye

Originally Posted by bad manners

I notice that the Americans (East/Mid-West) tend to say "eye" when they want to emphasize, especially in the end of a sentence: "I don't like eye-ther!". When it is not stressed, they pronounce in a kinda relaxed way, so that a slight movement of their tongue may make it "eye" or "ee", seemingly randomly. The Brits have too many dialects to say for sure.

What's wrong with having dialects? Variety is the spice of life.
Wouldn't it be boring if we all spoke the same way!!!

Originally Posted by Cheerful

Originally Posted by bad manners

I notice that the Americans (East/Mid-West) tend to say "eye" when they want to emphasize, especially in the end of a sentence: "I don't like eye-ther!". When it is not stressed, they pronounce in a kinda relaxed way, so that a slight movement of their tongue may make it "eye" or "ee", seemingly randomly. The Brits have too many dialects to say for sure.

What's wrong with having dialects? Variety is the spice of life.
Wouldn't it be boring if we all spoke the same way!!!

I did not say it was wrong in any way. I said that the multitude of dialects would make all attempts to generalize quite futile.

Either way is cool with me.

( I use both, depending on context )

Just to stress the fact even more , I'll also say I use both. There.

EYE-thur for me.

But true, either way is acceptable.

I say "ee-thur" and "nee-thur." Grew up on the west coast, live on the east coast now. So, I don't know if it's a regional thing or not.
Common converstaion with me:
"Do you like math better, or physics?"
"I don't really like eitherovm."