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I came across this sentence on a site at the definition page of "neither" (the 2nd definition of the word as a conjunction):

I did not believe his story, but neither did I believe hers.

Is "but neither" here grammatical? Also, does "and neither" work here as well?

I did not believe his story, and neither did I believe hers.

Thank you in advance!

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    It's fine. Okay.
    – Lambie
    Commented Feb 8, 2022 at 18:32
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    Dude. It's a Merriam-Webster's dictionary. You don't identify that you're questioning something that most English speakers rely on quite often. True, there are some very rare cases where M-W is wrong, but not in ordinary words like these. Downvoted because you failed to identify you were chasing a white whale. Geesh.
    – FeliniusRex - gone
    Commented Feb 8, 2022 at 18:55
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    If the original poster provided the link, I would be more lenient. However, I agree that Merriam-Webster is generally considered authoritative in the US. The poster may not have known this. Even that dictionary and site might make errors, but they should be presumed to be correct as regards modern US English.
    – Vegawatcher
    Commented Feb 8, 2022 at 19:11

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They are both grammatical, and have very nearly the same meaning.

... but neither did I believe hers suggests that his story and her story contradicted each other: the "but" is countering a supposition that because I didn't believe his story, therefore I would believe hers.

... and neither did I believe hers does not have this supposition. They might be contradictory, or they might be in agreement, or they might be entirely irrelevant to each other.

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