So I was having this conversation with two friends of mine in which the following exchange occured:
Me: “I don’t believe that.”
Jarod: “I don’t believe it either.”
Michael: “I don’t believe it either.”
My question is this…is Michael using “either” grammatically correct? I’ve always thought of either making reference to two things. Jarod made a reference to neither he or myself believing it. So Michael, by context, is making reference to him not believing it on top of Jarod and myself, so can he use “either?”
I’m not an expert on the grammatical use of the word either, in the statement “I don’t believe it either.” But when in doubt, just say “No F’n Way!”. Solves all your grammar questions quite nicely I think.
Either is making a reference to two things. You and Jarod, who both don’t believe. Is it proper? Not sure, but either likely has more than one meaning. Of course, I am way too lazy to access a dictionary. “I also don’t believe it,” is more proper but sounds less coloquial than a typical conversation with a buddy.
The word either can be used in many different ways. It can be an adjective, adverb, conjunction, or pronoun. In the sense Jarod and Michael used it, it would probably be an adverb meaning “likewise”. From the New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary
This sense of the word dates from the early 19th century.
