My Grammar and I (Or Should That Be 'Me'?): Old-School Ways to Sharpen Your English

See Me After Class: While Father was away, Mother seemed to have a lot of
fun. Meaning?
A bit of co-ordination
Some conjunctions have a co-ordinating role  between  two  parts  of  a  sentence,
and positioning them correctly can be a bit of a minefield.
Let’s  start  with  both  .  Both  goes  directly  before  the  first  word  of  the  two  to
which it refers. So in the sentence I was both unhappy with your work and your
time  keeping  ,  the  word  both  suggests  that  there  is  more  than  one  person
involved – which there can’t be because there is only I .
The correct versions of this sentence are either:

---

We were both unhappy with
your work and your time
keeping.
I and whoever else makes up the both
were unhappy with two things: your
work and your time keeping
or
I was both unhappy with
your work and
disappointed in your time
keeping .
I experienced two emotions
or
I was unhappy with both
your work and your time
keeping.
I was unhappy with two things
The same rule applies in sentences offering a choice of either /or .
Not They had either decided to offer for the house in the suburbs or the flat in
town ;
nor They had decided either to offer for the house in the suburbs or the flat in town
;
but They had decided to offer for either the house in the suburbs or the flat in town
;
or  They  had  decided  either  to  offer  for  the  house  in  the  suburbs  or  to  pay  the
asking price for the flat in town.