Either -- or, with subject?

Question

Hi everybody.

Which of the following sentences is grammatically correct?

1- Either a lot of students will be absent or they will fail the exam anyhow.

2- Either a lot of students will be absent or will fail the exam.

Please notice the omission of subject in the second sentence.

Answer 1

The first is correct. The second needs a bit of work.

Either...or is a correlative conjunction, and so needs to be connected to whatever you're compounding (whatever you have two of in the sentence). So:

Either [subject] or [other subject]....
We either [verb] or [other verb]...

In your second sentence, you've got a compound predicate (verb "half" of the sentence) but you've put "either" in front of the subject. So a technical improvement would be:

A lot of students will either be absent or fail the test.
A lot of students either will be absent or will fail the test.

Not elegant, but technically correct.

Note: You can also get rid of the odious "A lot of" and use "many" instead.

Answer 2

The first sentence is correct, although it's not especially elegant - and is only likely to be correct in the context where only these two alternatives apply to the students referred to. (I'm trying to say that under most circumstances there would be students who pass the exam, and the sentence doesn't cover that - hence the qualifying remark about context).

The rule for either/or goes like this:

Either (the first alternative in full) or (the second alternative in full). The test is whether you could write the sentence the other way round and still have it make sense.

Pedantry rules!!!

Answer 3

The first is not only more correct, the other one doesn't make sense.
Stylistically, I prefer to use the same word or same type of word after each in an either/or situation.
Examples:
Either YOU can go to the store, or YOU can do the dishes. (same word)
Either WALK or RUN, but get there fast! (both verbs)

Answer 4

Both sentences are correct but both mean different things.