Like the title may already suggest, I am wondering if "so" or "nor" would be right in place for refering that something is (not) like stated in the main sentence. What do you think?
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I'd say never, never use this construction. Whether you use so or nor, it remains not only incomprehensible but misleading to the average English reader. – Kris Feb 13 '12 at 10:54
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5Nothing lasts forever, and neither do we. – Peter Shor Feb 13 '12 at 12:13
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1I Am America (And So Can You!) – Robusto Feb 13 '12 at 14:02
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@Peter Shor: Even neither seems a bit odd to me, since if nothing lasts forever, by implication everything is ephemeral. I don't think you can say "Everything has property X, and so does [something which by implication wasn't included in that preceding everything]" – FumbleFingers Feb 13 '12 at 16:36
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Both alternatives are actually possible, depending on what you want to say. The sentence is ambiguous and therefore it's very difficult to tell what you're going after.
If you say:
Nothing lasts forever and so do we.
You mean:
Nothing lasts forever and we also last forever => We are immortal.
If you say:
Nothing lasts forever and neither do we.
You mean:
Nothing lasts forever and we don't last forever => We will die one day.
Frantisek
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I just hope others are going to agree with me, because this is a very tough situation you've proposed. You should probably un-accept my answer and wait for others to up-vote or down-vote or propose their ideas. – Frantisek Feb 13 '12 at 10:25
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@DavidWallace: well, this is a confusing situation and I don't mean to argue, because now I'm even more confused than ever. Do you think that "nothing does ..." should be followed by "nor do ..." to continue expressing the negativity? – Frantisek Feb 13 '12 at 10:32
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Diamonds last forever and so do we? Neither we nor anything else lasts forever – mplungjan Feb 13 '12 at 10:47
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This ambiguity, and therefore, the argument will last forever. I'd never want to hazard a guess if a sentence implies something or its exact opposite. – Kris Feb 13 '12 at 10:57
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3No, this is wrong. You can't use "so do we" after nothing, for either meaning. I think what you want is "nothing lasts forever and neither do we." – Peter Shor Feb 13 '12 at 12:12
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@RiMMER Ψ: I admire your fortitude in trying to bend "nothing" into a "substantive noun" which can be considered to have the property of immortality, so I won't actually downvote the answer. But I do feel this is simply playing with words and ontological concepts that don't really make sense, so I'm not going to upvote either! – FumbleFingers Feb 13 '12 at 16:40
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I've removed my earlier comment; it no longer applies now that you've changed the answer somewhat. To be honest, I don't have a problem with "nor" in this sentence; but I don't think I speak the same dialect of English as Rimmer. – Feb 13 '12 at 22:16
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@RiMMER Ψ - Ok, I just do for now as you suggested. I did not think, that this would become a that quite interesting discussion.
To be honest, this question was keeping me busy for a whole while now.
– p13n Feb 15 '12 at 09:19
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"Nothing lasts forever and so do we." would mean Nothing and we last forever which might make sense if the we here is immortal. Maybe if you had a god say it.
Reminds me of the joke:
Villain: Nobody can stop me!
Loser guy turned hero: I am nobody.
SidJ
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