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I have read both the styles...

Neither I like you, nor do I like your family
and
I don't like you. Nor do I like your family.

Is there any special cases where we use just 'nor' instead of 'neither...nor'? Has it to do anything with emphasis?

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  • Related: Using “nor” in a list without “neither”
    – Vilmar
    Commented Sep 29, 2014 at 7:55
  • @Vilmar I'm aware of the rules and styles (I already mentioned it) but the question is is there any context where just 'nor' is preferred over neither...nor?
    – Maulik V
    Commented Sep 29, 2014 at 8:01
  • I know, I just put it as a related link for someone willing to read more on this matter.
    – Vilmar
    Commented Sep 29, 2014 at 8:17

4 Answers 4

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As far as I know, we use the word NOR as an additional "information/support/reason" to a preceding "negative(usually)" statement. It should come after the "negative(or positive)" statement.

Ex:

  1. I don't like you, nor them.
  2. Neither you nor I will go to the party!

It would be awkward to say:

  1. You like him, nor I.
  2. I will go to the party, nor you.

Bottomline? We use nor as an additional reason/support/information to a preceding statement, usually a negative statement.

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In some cases, we may use just "nor" which suffices to replace both neither and nor such as "He nor I was there", but it is not only archaic but also sounds awkward. We may also use nor to replace the preceding neither such as "Nor he nor I was there". That's also archaic. I don't think such a use fits in the structure of modern English. (Please refer to The Free Dictionary).

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Neither I like you, nor do I like your family

I don't find that grammatically acceptable.

I don't like you. Nor do I like your family.

Instead of looking for a special grammar rule about the usage of "nor", I would treat this as one sentence (I don't like you, nor do I like your family.) that was somewhat improperly split into two. Similar to the "rule" that says that sentences should not start with "and". And similar to what I just did in this and in the previous sentence. In practice, there is some leeway in informal English, since thoughts don't always come out fully formed.

Consider writing the thought as I like neither you nor your family.

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In my opinion, the sentence "Neither I like you, nor do I like your family" should begin with an inversion, like so: Neither do I like you, nor do I like your family. This is the case when we link two clauses.
Alternatively you could write: "I like neither you nor your family", this time without a comma before nor.

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