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Is it grammatically correct to add a full sentence after the word either and the word or as in the following sentence, or should it be written as in the second sentence?

  1. My brother is a cook and works in a pizza restaurant. However, I have never seen either he is cooking a meal or ( making) a pizza at home.

  2. My brother is a cook and works in a pizza restaurant. However, I have never seen either his cooking a meal or (making) a pizza at home.

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  • Take out either. What do you think about I have never seen he is cooking a meal at home?? Commented Nov 25, 2016 at 15:29
  • I would say "I have never seen him either cooking a meal or (making) a pizza at home"
    – Irhala
    Commented Nov 25, 2016 at 15:31
  • Don't be distracted by the either X or Y construction. The basic syntactic constraints on what X can be are exactly the same in I have never seen X. That's to say, X should be a noun (some thing which could in principle be the object of to see). But a complete SVO statement such as He is cooking isn't a noun. The only valid way to use it after see would be something like I can see [that] he is cooking, where the assertion is effectively I can see that X is a true statement. Commented Nov 25, 2016 at 15:38
  • @AlanCarmack A pizza is not a meal so I wanted to mention separately.
    – Mrt
    Commented Nov 25, 2016 at 15:41
  • @FumbleFingers I see so is it correct to say "My brother is a cook and works in a pizza restaurant. However, I have never seen either that he is cooking a meal or (that ) ( making) a pizza at home."
    – Mrt
    Commented Nov 25, 2016 at 15:44

1 Answer 1

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1 is wrong. #2 would be better stated "My brother is a cook in a pizza restaurant. However, I have never seen him either prepare a meal or make a pizza at home."

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