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Is the usage of "neither... nor" natural in the following sentence?

A: Are you an organized person?

B: I am not the most organized person, but I'm neither procrastinator nor spontaneous. I tend to schedule things and plan my day in advance, but not every second of the day.

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    The word "but" sets up an opposition between "not the most organized" and "neither procrastinator nor spontaneous", which itself is an opposition. The meaning isn't very clear.
    – Jack O'Flaherty
    Nov 2, 2021 at 6:36
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    There is an opposition between being an organized person and being a procrastinator or spontaneous. Organized people are typically not spontaneous. Organized people are also not procrastinators. I do think the second sentence is insufficiently linked, but I could still see someone saying it... it just reflects a certain set of (false) assumptions about what procrastination entails.
    – Richard Winters
    Nov 2, 2021 at 6:40
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    in case it wasn't clear to you, "neither ... nor" means exactly the same as "not ... and also not" so in this case "I'm not a procrastinator and also not spontaneous".
    – Ivo
    Nov 2, 2021 at 13:45
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    "neither ... nor ..." is used exactly like "either ... or ..." but with the opposite meaning.
    – user253751
    Nov 2, 2021 at 14:45
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    It's also worth noting that procrastinator is a noun and spontaneous is an adjective. They should not be used together (separated by a conjunction like you are using them. You might say something like "but I'm neither a procrastinator nor am I spontaneous", but it seems a bit awkward still
    – Flydog57
    Nov 2, 2021 at 21:41

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Yes, the usage of "neither... nor" is natural in this sentence. There is a grammatical mistake however, as "procrastinator" needs an article-- specifically, it needs to be "a procrastinator" here.

I'm neither a procrastinator nor spontaneous.

The reverse order would also work.

I'm neither spontaneous nor a procrastinator.

Content-wise, I am skeptical that "not being a procrastinator" is addressed in the following sentence... scheduling things and planning the day have nothing to do with procrastination. That said, it's still a natural sentence, and would be idiomatic to a native or fluent speaker.

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    I think in poetic/literary contexts the article can actually be omitted; at least it sounds OK to my British English ears. Possibly influenced by the idiom "neither use nor ornament".
    – Muzer
    Nov 2, 2021 at 16:52
  • @muzer: Not to a Canadian ear (influenced by 30 years in the US).
    – Flydog57
    Nov 2, 2021 at 21:43
  • @Muzer It can be, but that clearly doesn't apply to this situation, and it's a very old-style folktale or biblical way of speaking. It's not worth mentioning here.
    – user91988
    Nov 2, 2021 at 23:55

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