Soit ... soit ... = Either ... or...

In: Level B2, Prepositions & Conjunctions, Préposition
Questions: 18

Look at these sentences:

Il existe soit en bleu, soit en rouge.
It exists either in blue or in red.

Tu peux avoir soit du fromage, soit un dessert.
You can have either cheese or dessert.

Pour Noël, j'aimerais soit une tablette soit un nouveau portable. 
For Christmas, I would like either a tablet or a new mobile phone.

 

 

Note that to say ''either...or...'' in French, we use soit...soit...

 

Learn more about these related French grammar topics

Préposition

Examples and resources

Tu peux avoir soit du fromage, soit un dessert.
You can have either cheese or dessert.

Pour Noël, j'aimerais soit une tablette soit un nouveau portable. 
For Christmas, I would like either a tablet or a new mobile phone.

Il existe soit en bleu, soit en rouge.
It exists either in blue or in red.

Q&A

Andrea

Kwiziq community member

20 February 2019

0 replies

soit/soit ou/ou

Isn't ou/ou also an option for either/or?  

Je voudrais ou le café ou le thé?

When can that be used?

Thank you!

Marnie

Kwiziq community member

30 October 2018

1 reply

Soit...soit

« Soit on passe le Noël chez mes parents...soit..ici ».  Is it possible to say (paraphrasing)...  « On passe le Noël soit...chez mes parents soit ici » instead of putting « soit » at the very beginning of the sentence?

Cécile

Kwiziq language super star

31 October 2018

31/10/18

Hi Marnie,

Yes you can say that too...

Paul

Kwiziq community member

17 June 2018

0 replies

Soit.....soit

May I please suggest adding some more examples to this lesson; for example, usage with verbs. Thanks.

Jose

Kwiziq community member

15 October 2017

5 replies

Why is "soit des vacances soit du travail" wrong as a translation of "either holiday or work"?

Ron

Kwiziq community member

15 October 2017

15/10/17

Bonjour Jose, Was there a question involved with your post? I do not find that type of question in the lesson.

Chris

Kwiziq community member

24 October 2017

24/10/17

The correct answer is "soit les vacances soit le travail". Here you are talking about vacation and work in general terms: either vacation (in general) or work (in general). "Des vacances" uses the partitive "de" and refers to (some vacations). Similarly for "du travail". -- Chris. (not a native speaker)

John

Kwiziq community member

15 May 2018

15/05/18

The question is when do you use, for example, des vacances instead of les vacances, or du travail instead of le travail.   In one of the examples we had du fromage but un dessert. 

Serian

Kwiziq community member

3 February 2019

3/02/19

I also put 'des vacances' here. I don't really see why it couldn't be 'some holidays' - i.e. Either you take some holiday, or you work  

John

Kwiziq community member

20 February 2019

20/02/19

Don't understand the distinction.

Lisa

Kwiziq community member

3 August 2017

1 reply

liaison with soit...soit

Is there no liaison between soit and the word that follows it? None of the sound files seemed to include it, whether soit preceded un/une/en... Thank you!

Laura

Kwiziq language super star

5 August 2017

5/08/17

Bonjour Lisa, The liaison after soit is optional.

Richard

Kwiziq community member

19 June 2017

2 replies

after "soit" when should you use "de" and when do you omit "de

Aurélie

Kwiziq language super star

20 June 2017

20/06/17

Bonjour Richard ! It depends on whether you're using a verb followed by the preposition "de" or not. E.g. "Je me sers *d'*un outil." (I'm using a tool.) -> "Je me sers soit d'un marteau soit d'un tournevis." "J'ai vu Paul." (I saw Paul.) -> "J'ai vu soit Paul soit Thomas." "Tu as besoin *de* quelque chose." (You need something.) -> "Tu as besoin soit d'un crayon soit d'un stylo." I hope that's helpful! À bientôt !

John

Kwiziq community member

28 August 2017

28/08/17

Can you say "Tu as besoin DE soit un crayon soit un stylo"?

Malcolm

Kwiziq community member

20 December 2015

2 replies

How can they be the same word? Is soit 'to be'?

Laura

Kwiziq language super star

21 December 2015

21/12/15

Bonjour Malcolm, Yes, technically "soit" is the subjunctive of être, meaning "be." But the French conjunction soit ... soit needs to be understood as a set phrase. If it helps, you can think of if as "whether it be ... or it be ..."

Terri

Kwiziq community member

18 December 2017

18/12/17

Where might I find the mini quiz for this lesson? I seem to have lost several mini quizzes today. Thank you, Terri

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