Some conjunctions don't work alone — they come as a matched pair, one half marking the start of the first item and the other half marking the second. English has them too: both...and, either...or, neither...nor, not only...but also. Swedish has the exact same set, and three of the four map cleanly onto English. The fourth, varken...eller, hides a trap that catches almost every English speaker: it is already negative, so adding an extra inte the way English structure tempts you to produces a wrong double negative. This page lays out all four pairs, shows where each half attaches, and works through the negation logic that makes varken...eller the one to watch.
både...och — "both...and"
The simplest pair. både marks the first item, och marks the second, and together they say both X and Y. They can join two nouns, two verbs, two adjectives, two whole phrases — whatever you like, as long as both halves are the same kind of thing.
Både Anna och Pelle kom på festen.
Both Anna and Pelle came to the party. 'både' before the first name, 'och' before the second — and because the subject is plural, the verb is plain 'kom'.
Jag gillar både kaffe och te på morgonen.
I like both coffee and tea in the morning. The pair joins two objects of 'gillar'.
Hon är både smart och rolig.
She is both smart and funny. Two adjectives joined; 'både...och' works on any matched pair of elements.
Note the agreement point in the first example: både Anna och Pelle is a plural subject ("Anna and Pelle" = two people), so the verb takes its normal plural-or-singular form for two subjects — in Swedish that's just the ordinary verb (kom, är), since Swedish verbs don't inflect for number. What matters is that you treat the joined subject as plural for any agreement that does depend on number, such as a following predicate adjective: Både bilen och huset är gamla ("Both the car and the house are old" — plural gamla).
antingen...eller — "either...or"
antingen opens the first option, eller opens the second: either X or Y. It presents a genuine choice between two alternatives. A useful detail of Swedish word order shows up when antingen sits at the very front of a clause: because it fills the first slot, the V2 rule forces the verb to invert right after it.
Vi kan antingen ta bussen eller gå till fots.
We can either take the bus or walk. 'antingen' before the first verb phrase, 'eller' before the second.
Antingen kommer du i tid, eller så får du gå själv.
Either you come on time, or you'll have to walk by yourself. Fronted 'antingen' fills the first slot, so the verb 'kommer' inverts before 'du'. The 'så' after 'eller' is the common conversational filler.
Du måste antingen betala nu eller boka av resan.
You have to either pay now or cancel the trip. The pair joins two infinitive phrases under 'måste'.
varken...eller — "neither...nor" (already negative!)
Here is the pair that demands real attention. varken...eller means neither X nor Y. The crucial fact: varken is itself a negative word — it already carries the "not" inside it. So the whole construction is negative on its own, with no separate inte anywhere. This is exactly like English neither...nor, which also needs no extra "not": you say I want neither coffee nor tea, never I don't want neither coffee nor tea (that double negative is non-standard in English too).
The trouble is that English speakers often reach for varken...eller while their sentence is already framed negatively in their head — "I don't want..." — and they let an inte slip in. In Swedish that inte is simply wrong: varken has done the negating.
Jag vill varken ha kaffe eller te.
I want neither coffee nor tea. NO 'inte' — 'varken' is already the negation. 'varken' before the first option, 'eller' before the second.
Han svarade varken ja eller nej.
He answered neither yes nor no. The pair negates both alternatives by itself.
Vi har varken tid eller pengar just nu.
We have neither time nor money right now. 'varken tid eller pengar' — no separate 'inte' needed or allowed.
Hon känner varken honom eller hans familj.
She knows neither him nor his family. The whole statement is negative through 'varken' alone.
inte bara...utan också — "not only...but also"
This pair is built differently from the others: its first half does contain inte ("not"), and the contrast word is utan, not eller or men. The shape is inte bara X utan också Y — not only X but also Y. The point is additive: it doesn't deny X, it says X and Y both hold, with Y as the surprising or stronger addition.
The word utan is essential here. Swedish has two words for "but": men (ordinary contrast) and utan (the special "but rather / but instead" that corrects a preceding negative). After inte bara, the correcting "but" is always utan — never men.
Han talar inte bara svenska utan också finska.
He speaks not only Swedish but also Finnish. 'inte bara' opens the first item, 'utan också' the second. Note: 'utan', not 'men'.
Hon är inte bara duktig utan också väldigt snäll.
She is not only skilled but also very kind. The pair adds the second quality on top of the first.
Resan var inte bara dyr utan också tröttsam.
The trip was not only expensive but also tiring. 'utan också' introduces the additional point.
You can drop också and keep just inte bara...utan when the second item is itself emphatic, but in everyday speech the full inte bara...utan också is the safe, natural default.
Where each half lands, and verb order
A correlative pair places its two markers immediately before the two elements being joined. Whatever those elements are — nouns, verb phrases, adjectives — the marker hugs the front of each. The verb of the sentence behaves normally around them, with the one wrinkle already noted: if a marker like antingen or varken is pushed to the very front of the clause, it occupies the first slot and the finite verb inverts after it (V2).
Varken regnet eller kylan stoppade dem.
Neither the rain nor the cold stopped them. 'Varken regnet eller kylan' is the fronted subject; the verb 'stoppade' follows in second position as normal.
When in doubt, build the sentence in plain order first, then drop the paired markers in front of the two items you're linking — the rest of the word order stays exactly as it was.
Common Mistakes
❌ Jag vill inte varken ha kaffe eller te.
Incorrect — double negative. 'varken' is already negative, so the extra 'inte' is wrong.
✅ Jag vill varken ha kaffe eller te.
I want neither coffee nor tea.
❌ Han svarade inte varken ja eller nej.
Incorrect — same double negative. Remove 'inte'; 'varken...eller' does all the negating.
✅ Han svarade varken ja eller nej.
He answered neither yes nor no.
❌ Han talar inte bara svenska men också finska.
Incorrect — after a corrective 'inte bara' the 'but' is 'utan', not 'men'.
✅ Han talar inte bara svenska utan också finska.
He speaks not only Swedish but also Finnish.
❌ Antingen du kommer i tid eller du får gå själv.
Incorrect — fronted 'antingen' fills the first slot, so the verb must invert: 'kommer du'.
✅ Antingen kommer du i tid, eller så får du gå själv.
Either you come on time, or you'll have to walk by yourself.
❌ Jag gillar både kaffe eller te.
Incorrect — 'både' pairs with 'och', not 'eller'. 'eller' belongs to 'antingen' or 'varken'.
✅ Jag gillar både kaffe och te.
I like both coffee and tea.
Key Takeaways
- Correlative coordinators come in fixed pairs: både...och ("both...and"), antingen...eller ("either...or"), varken...eller ("neither...nor"), inte bara...utan också ("not only...but also"). Each marker sits directly in front of the item it tags.
- varken...eller is inherently negative — it already means "neither/nor", so you must never add a separate inte. This is the number-one error for English speakers.
- After inte bara, the contrast word is utan ("but rather"), not men.
- The pairs are fixed: både goes with och, antingen/varken go with eller. Don't cross them.
- If a marker like antingen or varken opens the clause, it fills the first slot and the finite verb inverts after it (V2).
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- Coordinating Conjunctions (och, men, eller, för, så)A2 — The closed set of words that join equals without changing word order: och (and), men (but), eller (or), för (for/because — loosely causal), så (so, result), samt (and/as well as, formal), and utan (but rather, only after a negative). None of them trigger subordinate order — both halves keep main-clause V2. The two sharp distinctions to learn: men vs utan (utan corrects a preceding negative: inte X utan Y), and the coordinator för vs the subordinator eftersom.
- Other Negators (aldrig, varken...eller, knappast)B1 — Beyond inte and ingen, Swedish negates with a set of words that all share one syntactic home: aldrig 'never', sällan 'rarely', knappast/knappt 'hardly', varken...eller 'neither...nor', and inte ens 'not even'. The good news is that they are all SENTENCE ADVERBS occupying the same slot as inte — so they follow the same V2 and BIFF placement rules: after the finite verb in a main clause (Jag har aldrig varit där), before it in a subordinate clause (att han aldrig kommer). And because they are already negative, you never combine them with inte — *aldrig inte is wrong.
- Comparison Conjunctions (än, som, ju...desto)B1 — How Swedish joins the two halves of a comparison: 'than' is always än (större än), never som; equality is lika ... som ('as ... as', lika stor som) or så ... som; and 'the more ... the more' is the correlative ju ... desto, which hides a real structural trap — the ju-clause is subordinate (BIFF order) and the desto-clause inverts its verb to second position, so the whole thing is two clauses bolted together, not a fixed phrase.
- Coordination (och, men, eller) and EllipsisA2 — The coordinators och, men, eller, för, så join EQUAL elements and sit OUTSIDE the clause — they do NOT count as a fronted element, so they never trigger inversion. Each conjunct keeps its own main-clause V2 order, and shared elements (especially the subject) can be dropped: Hon sjöng och dansade. Punctuation: a comma before men, but usually none before och.