A correlative conjunction is a paired connector — two words that work as a single unit, one in front of each of the items they coordinate. English has a small set: both... and..., either... or..., neither... nor..., not only... but also.... Italian has a slightly richer set with somewhat different rules, and the small differences matter. The Italian sia... sia... doesn't quite work the same way as English "both... and." The Italian o... o... is more emphatic than a plain o. And non solo... ma anche... has a fixed second slot that learners often misread.
This page covers the four major Italian correlatives — sia... sia..., o... o..., né... né..., non solo... ma anche... — plus the related e... e..., così... come..., tanto... quanto..., and the alternative sia... che.... It explains the agreement rules (which catch native English speakers most often), the register choices, and the position constraints.
Sia... sia... — both... and...
Sia... sia... is the Italian way to say "both X and Y" when you want to insist that both things are true at once. It coordinates any kind of constituent: nouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, prepositional phrases, full clauses. Each of the two coordinated elements is preceded by sia.
Sia Marco sia Maria vengono alla riunione.
Both Marco and Maria are coming to the meeting.
Mi piace sia il caffè sia il tè, ma a colazione preferisco il tè.
I like both coffee and tea, but at breakfast I prefer tea.
L'argomento è interessante sia per i linguisti sia per gli storici.
The topic is interesting both to linguists and to historians.
Sia di mattina sia di sera, lavora sempre.
Both in the morning and in the evening, she's always working.
The defining feature of sia... sia... is inclusive both-ness. The speaker is asserting that both X and Y hold — not just one or the other. This is different from o... o..., which presents alternatives.
The variant: sia... che...
In modern Italian you will frequently see — and hear — sia... che... used in the same role: sia Marco che Maria vengono. This variant is fully accepted in everyday speech and modern journalism, though traditional grammarians used to disapprove of it (the argument being that che is a different kind of conjunction and shouldn't be paired with sia). In contemporary written Italian both forms are correct; sia... sia... is slightly preferred in careful writing, sia... che... slightly preferred in spoken Italian and in journalistic prose.
Sia Marco che Maria vengono alla riunione.
Both Marco and Maria are coming to the meeting. (everyday speech)
L'argomento è interessante sia per i linguisti che per gli storici.
The topic is interesting both to linguists and to historians. (mixed register, very common)
Verb agreement after sia... sia...
When sia X sia Y is the subject of the verb, the verb takes the plural form. This is different from né X né Y, which traditionally takes the singular. The reasoning: sia... sia... asserts that both subjects participate in the action, so the joint subject is genuinely plural; né... né... denies both, so neither is doing anything.
Sia Marco sia Luigi parlano francese.
Both Marco and Luigi speak French.
Sia il pane sia il vino erano ottimi.
Both the bread and the wine were excellent.
When the two subjects are of different persons, agreement follows the standard hierarchy io > tu > lui/lei: the most "personal" person wins, and the verb takes the corresponding plural form.
Sia tu sia io abbiamo torto.
Both you and I are wrong. (first-person plural — io wins)
Sia lui sia tu siete arrivati tardi.
Both he and you arrived late. (second-person plural — tu wins)
Three or more terms
Sia extends to three or more elements without changing form: sia X, sia Y, sia Z. Italian usually adds a comma before each sia when there are more than two elements.
Sia in italiano, sia in francese, sia in spagnolo, riusciva a sostenere una conversazione.
Both in Italian, in French, and in Spanish, she could hold a conversation.
O... o... — either... or...
A bare o (just one of them) means "or" — a neutral disjunction. Doubling it up as o... o... turns it into the emphatic correlative "either... or...", insisting that the choice is between exactly these two options. It is more forceful than a plain o and often carries a sense of decisive alternative — pick one, no third path.
O vieni con noi o resti a casa da solo.
Either you come with us or you stay home alone.
O paghi adesso o non parti.
Either you pay now or you're not leaving.
O Marco o Luigi deve aver lasciato la porta aperta.
Either Marco or Luigi must have left the door open.
The construction is sometimes intensified to o... o... at the start of two whole clauses with no shared elements at all, producing the classic ultimatum:
O la va o la spacca.
Make or break. / Either it works or it doesn't. (idiom)
O tutto o niente.
All or nothing.
A close relative is oppure, which can introduce the second of the two options as an alternative ("or else"). Oppure is heavier than a plain o and often signals a real choice or a contingency.
Possiamo andare al cinema, oppure restare a casa a guardare un film.
We can go to the cinema, or else stay home and watch a movie.
Verb agreement after o... o...
With o X o Y as subject, the traditional agreement is singular (only one of the two is doing the action). Modern usage tolerates plural when the speaker conceptualizes the alternation as a coordinated pair, but singular is still the safer choice in writing.
O Marco o Luigi viene alla festa.
Either Marco or Luigi is coming to the party. (singular — traditional)
O Marco o Luigi vengono alla festa.
Either Marco or Luigi is coming to the party. (plural — modern, also accepted)
When the alternatives are different persons, the verb usually agrees with the closer one — the one immediately before the verb.
O tu o io devo andare.
Either you or I have to go. (verb agrees with io, the closer subject — traditional)
Né... né... — neither... nor...
The negative correlative né... né... is treated in detail in Né... né... (Neither... Nor). The key facts that matter for the wider correlative system:
- The accent on né is mandatory — it is né, not ne (which is a different word, the partitive particle).
- When né... né... follows the verb, non is required before the verb: Non mangio né carne né pesce. Italian double negation is obligatory in this construction.
- When né... né... is fronted, non drops out: Né Marco né Luigi sono venuti.
- Verb agreement is traditionally singular but increasingly plural in modern usage.
Non parla né italiano né inglese.
He speaks neither Italian nor English.
Né il caffè né il tè mi tengono sveglio.
Neither coffee nor tea keep me awake. (plural agreement, modern)
Né... né... is the negative twin of sia... sia...: where sia... sia... asserts that both X and Y hold, né... né... asserts that neither does. They form a clean affirmative-negative pair in the correlative system.
Non solo... ma anche... — not only... but also...
This is the additive-emphatic correlative: it admits the first thing and adds the second thing as an extra, often more striking, point. The structure is fixed: non solo X, ma anche Y. The first slot has non solo (not only); the second slot has ma anche (but also). Both halves are required for the construction to land.
Non solo è bravo, ma anche simpatico.
Not only is he good, he's also nice.
Marco non solo parla francese, ma anche tedesco e russo.
Marco speaks not only French, but also German and Russian.
Non solo è arrivato in tempo, ma ha anche portato il dolce.
Not only did he arrive on time, he also brought dessert.
Notice the position of anche relative to the verb in the third example: ha anche portato — anche slips between the auxiliary ha and the past participle portato. This is the same position anche takes in any sentence: ho anche mangiato, sono anche andato. Non solo... ma anche... doesn't change anche's placement rules.
Variant: ma anche / ma persino / ma perfino
The second slot can be intensified for emphasis. Ma persino and ma perfino both mean "but even" and add a touch of surprise to the second item — it is an unexpected addition, not just an additional one.
Non solo si è arrabbiato, ma ha persino urlato.
Not only did he get angry, he even yelled.
Non solo non ha pagato, ma ha perfino chiesto un altro caffè.
Not only did he not pay, he even asked for another coffee.
These intensified variants are common in narrative prose and dramatic recounting — when the second event tops the first.
The fronted variant: not only... but also... at the head
In Italian (and English), non solo can front the whole sentence, putting the construction in the foreground. When non solo is fronted, Italian — like English — often inverts the subject-verb order in the first half. This is one of the few productive subject-verb inversions in Italian outside of questions.
Non solo era bravo, ma era anche carismatico.
Not only was he good, he was also charismatic.
Non solo lo sapevo, ma lo avevo anche detto.
Not only did I know it, I had also said so.
The inversion (non solo era bravo rather than non solo lui era bravo) gives the construction its formal-rhetorical flavor.
E... e... — both... and... (emphatic, somewhat literary)
The doubled e... e... is a less common correlative meaning "both... and..." with a slightly emphatic, sometimes archaic flavor. It is rarer than sia... sia... in modern Italian, and feels deliberately literary or rhetorical when used.
E i piccoli e i grandi si sono divertiti alla festa.
Both the children and the adults had fun at the party. (literary)
E lui e lei sapevano la verità.
Both he and she knew the truth. (literary)
In contemporary speech and writing, you would more naturally say sia i piccoli sia i grandi or tutti, piccoli e grandi. E... e... survives in proverbs, song lyrics, and elevated prose.
Così... come... and tanto... quanto... — comparison correlatives
These correlatives don't coordinate alternatives or additions — they set up comparisons of equality. Così X come Y and tanto X quanto Y both translate as as X as Y. They are treated more fully on the comparison pages, but they belong to the broader correlative family.
È così intelligente come suo padre.
He's as intelligent as his father.
È tanto bella quanto modesta.
She's as beautiful as she is modest.
Lavora tanto di giorno quanto di notte.
He works as much by day as by night.
In modern speech, the unmarked equality comparison drops così / tanto and uses just come / quanto: È intelligente come suo padre. The full correlative form survives in formal and emphatic registers.
Ordering and positioning
A general rule for all the correlatives: the two paired markers must precede parallel constituents. If you say sia di mattina sia di sera, the two items are both prepositional phrases — that is parallel. If you say sia di mattina sia lavorando, you have mixed a prepositional phrase with a gerund — that is not parallel, and the sentence sounds wrong.
Mi piace sia leggere sia scrivere.
I like both reading and writing. (parallel: two infinitives)
Lavora sia in ufficio sia da casa.
He works both at the office and from home. (parallel: two PPs)
❌ Mi piace sia leggere sia il cinema.
Wrong — mismatched: an infinitive paired with a noun phrase.
The parallelism requirement is sharper in correlatives than in plain coordinators. With a simple e or o you can sometimes get away with mismatch (mi piace leggere e il cinema sounds slightly off but is comprehensible). With correlatives, the parallel structure is non-negotiable.
Comparison with English
Italian and English correlatives map fairly cleanly, but the alignments are not perfect:
| English | Italian | Note |
|---|---|---|
| both X and Y | sia X sia Y / sia X che Y | The che variant is common in speech. |
| either X or Y | o X o Y | Stronger than a plain o. |
| neither X nor Y | né X né Y | Plus non before the verb if postposed. |
| not only X but also Y | non solo X ma anche Y | Both halves required; ma persino for "but even." |
| as X as Y | (così) X come Y / (tanto) X quanto Y | Così / tanto often dropped in speech. |
| both X and Y (literary) | e X e Y | Rare in modern Italian. |
The most common error mode for English speakers: producing non-parallel pairs because English tolerates some mismatches that Italian does not. The second most common error: dropping the second half of non solo... ma anche... on the assumption that it is optional padding.
Common Mistakes
❌ Sia Marco sia Maria viene.
Wrong agreement — *sia X sia Y* takes the plural verb.
✅ Sia Marco sia Maria vengono.
Both Marco and Maria are coming.
❌ Non solo è bravo, anche simpatico.
Wrong — the second half of *non solo... ma anche...* requires *ma anche*, not just *anche*.
✅ Non solo è bravo, ma anche simpatico.
Not only is he good, he's also nice.
❌ Mangio né carne né pesce.
Wrong — postposed *né... né...* requires *non* before the verb.
✅ Non mangio né carne né pesce.
I eat neither meat nor fish.
❌ O studi o vai a giocare e non vuoi vedere nessuno.
Awkward — chaining *o... o...* with extra clauses dilutes the ultimatum force.
✅ O studi o vai a giocare. Decidi tu.
Either you study or you go play. You decide.
❌ Sia leggere sia il cinema mi piacciono.
Non-parallel — an infinitive paired with a noun phrase.
✅ Mi piacciono sia la lettura sia il cinema. / Mi piace sia leggere sia andare al cinema.
I like both reading and the cinema. / I like both reading and going to the movies.
❌ E Marco e Maria sono venuti, anche Luigi.
Mixed — once you start with *e... e...*, don't tack on a third with *anche*.
✅ Sia Marco sia Maria sia Luigi sono venuti. / Marco, Maria e Luigi sono venuti tutti.
Marco, Maria, and Luigi all came.
Key takeaways
- Sia... sia... = both X and Y. Plural verb. Modern variant sia... che... is fine in speech, sia... sia... preferred in formal writing.
- O... o... = either X or Y. Singular verb traditionally; plural increasingly accepted.
- Né... né... = neither X nor Y. Requires non before the verb when postposed; drops non when fronted. See Né... né... (Neither... Nor) for the full treatment.
- Non solo... ma anche... = not only X but also Y. Both halves required. Ma persino / ma perfino intensify the second slot.
- E... e... is a literary/emphatic doublet of sia... sia..., rare in modern usage.
- All correlatives require parallel constituents in the two slots. Mixing a noun phrase with an infinitive, or a prepositional phrase with a gerund, sounds wrong.
For the basic three coordinators, see E, O, Ma: Basic Coordinators. For the negative correlative in depth, see Né... né... (Neither... Nor). For the adversative system, see Adversative Conjunctions.
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Open the Italian course →Related Topics
- E, O, Ma: Basic CoordinatorsA1 — The three workhorse coordinating conjunctions of Italian — e (and), o (or), ma (but) — with the euphonic ed/od variants and modern usage rules.
- Né... né... (Neither... Nor)A2 — The Italian negative correlative né... né — why it requires non in the main clause, how verb agreement works, and how it differs from English neither/nor.
- Adversative Conjunctions: ma, però, tuttavia, invece, anziB1 — The full Italian adversative system — ma, però, tuttavia, invece, anzi, bensì — with their distinct positions, registers, and the logical relations they encode (contrast, alternative, correction, upgrade).
- Conjunctions: Complete ReferenceB1 — The full Italian conjunction system — coordinators, subordinators, correlatives, and discourse connectors — with mood requirements, position rules, and register notes for every connector.
- Italian Conjunctions: OverviewA2 — A map of the Italian conjunction system — coordinating, subordinating, causal, final, concessive, temporal, conditional — with the indicativo/congiuntivo split and links to every major subpage.
- Connected Discourse and ConnectivesB2 — How Italian builds cohesive paragraphs — the rich inventory of sequence, cause, contrast, reformulation, and conclusion connectives, with register notes.