Study materials
These words help you refer to things just named without repeating them.
Anna and Ben teach maths and history respectively.
Kyiv and Lviv are both old, but the latter is smaller.
This article explains respectively, the former and the latter, the first and the last, the pairs either … or and neither … nor, and repeating the noun in documents.
Respectively, the former and the latter
Respectively matches two lists in order. Anna and Ben teach maths and history respectively means Anna teaches maths and Ben teaches history.
The former and the latter point to the first and second of two items just mentioned. For three or more you say the first and the last.
Kyiv and Lviv are both old, but the latter is smaller.
Lviv is smaller.
Either … or means one or the other, and neither … nor means not one and not the other. The pairs are not mixed, and after neither … nor the verb takes no not. In a document the noun is often repeated instead of a pronoun, so there is no question whom it refers to: the supplier shall notify the client, and the supplier shall pay.
If there are so many clarifications that the sentence is hard to read at first go, it is better to split it in two.
Common mistakes
The first mistake is an adjective instead of an adverb.
Anna and Ben teach maths and history respective. → … maths and history respectively.
The adverb respectively is needed.
The second mistake is a mixed pair.
Either the supplier nor the client may cancel. → Neither the supplier nor the client may cancel.
Either goes with or, neither with nor.
The third mistake is the latter for three items.
We visited Kyiv, Lviv and Odesa. The latter was the warmest. → The last was the warmest.
The latter means the second of two.
The first mistake shows at the end of the sentence, where respective should be respectively. The second shows when you match the two halves of the pair. Either always goes with or, and neither always with nor. The third shows when you count the items named. The former and the latter are only for two.