請先看下列2句

Either of your parents can attend the PTA meeting.
"你的家長的其中任何一位都可以去開會"

Both of your parents can attend the PTA meeting.
"你的2位家長都可以去開會"

那這2句話意思不是都一樣嘛?

『你的家長的其中任何一位都可以去開會』在意義上不就等於『你的2位家長都可以去開會』嗎?

這樣是不是表示Either跟Both意義是一樣的呢?

而且either也有「2者中的任何一個都是」之義 (根據 文法寶典p.133)

請看下列這句

Either of the twins is wise. "雙胞胎的每一個都聰明"(中英文皆摘自文法寶典p.133)

"雙胞胎的每一個都聰明"不就等於 Both of the twins are wise.嗎?

那這樣 Either 跟 Both 根本就是『同義字』嘛! 只是用法有一點點不同而已

大家覺得呢?

I dont know, either.......

They are different words. Many ideas can be expressed using different word combinations. For example, we can say "everybody likes him" is similar to "they like him" as everybody refers to all the people.

In the examples given, "Either of your parents can attend the PTA meeting." can be satisfied even only one of the parents attends the PTA meeting. But in "Both of your parents can attend the PTA meeting.", it usually implies that "both parents" attend the PTA meeting. The tricky part in the two sentences is the word "can". If "can" is omitted, you can definitely see the difference.

Compare

Either of your parents attended the PTA meeting.

with

Both of your parents attended the PTA meeting.

and you should get the picture.

Tim