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I am wondering which conjunction and or or to use after without. How the negation affects to the choice of conjunction? Which one of the following is correct or does it depend on the context?

  1. She drank tea without milk and honey.
  2. She drank tea without milk or honey.
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  • Both work, IMHO.
    – Stephie
    Commented Oct 20, 2015 at 12:21
  • 2
    First sentence means that she drank without milk + honey. The second one means that she drank without Milk / honey. Both are correct but differ in meaning.
    – Usernew
    Commented Oct 20, 2015 at 13:53

1 Answer 1

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Nicely subtle question.

Let me riff on the sentences so you'll see the semantic differences:

  1. She drank tea with neither milk nor honey.

"Without" negates, so I can flip that around to use "with neither... nor" and keep the same meaning.

  1. She drank tea without milk and honey... but she did take honey alone.

Of course, most native speakers would say #1 and mean #2, and not notice the difference, but it is there.

The use of "and" ties the two things in the list together, like so:

Pass me the salt and pepper, please

vs.

Pass me the salt, please.

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