O... o... and ni... ni...

[laepelba]

My exercise book says the following:

Conjunctions may also be used as indefinite and negative words. Note: O... o... and ni... ni... are always used in pairs.

Immediately following this statement are two examples, one with O... o... and one with ni... ni....

My question is about the use of the word "always", as in "always used in pairs". Really? Because I could swear that I've seen o... used NOT in a pair. And a few pages later, they have sentences like "¿Tenemos que encontrar a Peter o a Sandra?".

So, I suppose that o... is not absolutely always used in pairs. What about "ni"?

Thanks!!

[Cloudgazer]

I wonder if the "always used in pairs" is talking about when someone wants to express "either...or..." and "neither...nor..." with these conjunctions. Sin embargo, ni o ni ni se usan de dos en dos todo el tiempo, tal como lo has visto. Por ejemplo, "¡Ni hablar!" se usa para decir "No way!" y "Ni idea." para decir "I have no clue/I haven't the foggiest notion".

[Rusty]

They were talking about "either...or" and "neither...nor" constructs. That's when you use the two conjunctions in pairs. The translation into English of "o ... o ..." will be "either ... or ...." The translation of "ni ... ni ..." will be "neither ... nor ..." in English.

[Cloudgazer]

Thanks for clearing that up, Rusty! :)

[laepelba]

Yes, thanks, Rusty. I was hoping that's what they meant. I wish they had given that restriction.