So do I / I don't either / Neither do I

One way that we can show similarities between ourselves and the people we talk to is like this:
    A: I love Indian food.
    B: Yeah, me too. / Yeah. So do I. / I do, too.

If B doesn't like Indian food, the exchange might be like this:
    A: I love Indian food.
    B: Do you? I don't.
(Instead of Do you? we can also say You do? with rising intonation or Really?)

I don't either / Neither do I

When we want to show that we feel the same way as somebody else we can use patterns like these:

I like tennis - So do I.
I watch the news every day - Yeah, I do too.

So do I and I do too are used with positive verb forms. However, when we have negative verb forms (i.e. forms which contain n't or never), we need to use a different structure to share our feeling:
A: I don't like baseball.
B: No, me neither / Neither do I / I don't either.

Do you? I don't / Don't you? I do.

Be careful about this very important point:
So do I / I do to shows agreement with a positive verb form.
Neither do I / I don't either shows agreement with a negative verb form.

Therefore, if Person A likes pop music but Person B doesn't like pop music. We do not express it like this:
    A: I like pop music.
    B: Neither do I.
Neither do I is used to show agreement with a negative verb statement:
    A: I don't like chocolate.
    B: Neither do I.
When B wants to show that his/her views are diffent from A's, it can be done like this:

EXPRESSING DIFFERENCE WITH A POSITIVE VERB FORM:
    A: I study hard every day.
    B: Do you? I don't.

EXPRESSING DIFFERENCE WITH A NEGATIVE VERB FORM:
    A: I never watch television in the evenings.
    B:   Don't you? I do.

Making our responses more interesting

Of course, if we always respond to people's statements with So do I or Do you? I don't etc., our responses will not be very interesting. To make them more interesting, we can try to add an extra detail. Here are some examples:

    A: I love Indian food.
    B: Yeah, so do I, especially onion bhajis and rogan josh.

    A: I don't like chocolate.
    B:   Neither do I. It usually makes me feel sick.

    A: I really love baseball.
    B: Do you? I think it's boring. I much prefer football.

    A: I never read the newspapers.
    B:   Don't you? I always read the Guardian while I'm having breakfast.

Exercise

Look at the table below. Write short exchanges between George and Susan. Try to add an extra detail to make your answers more interesting.

Example:
George: I really love baseball.
Susan: So do I. I never miss it if it's on TV.

	George	Susan
loves baseball cooks every day loves classical music always works on Sundays goes to the gym quite often	Yes No No No No	Yes No No Yes Yes

When you've finished the exercise, click here for some suggested answers.

Please click on the link below if you want to try some of my other one-point lessons:
Bob's One-Point Lesson Archive