Le stagioni, i colori e i frutti in Italia

What does “né... né” mean in Italian?

To say “neither... nor” in Italian, you put né in front of each thing: né fiori né foglie (“neither flowers nor leaves”). The surprise for English speakers is that the verb still keeps its non: non hanno né fiori né foglie. In English a second negative would flip the meaning back to positive; in Italian the extra negatives just stack up and make the “no” stronger. They all push the same direction.

Heard describing winter trees: “Ma d’inverno gli alberi non hanno né fiori né foglie” — but in winter the trees have neither flowers nor leaves. The pattern is non + verb + né X né Y. Né comes from Latin nec (“and not”). One twist: when né... né starts the sentence as the subject, the non drops — “Né Marco né Anna sono venuti” (neither Marco nor Anna came) — but after the verb, as here, you keep non. You can also pair it with a single thing for “not even”: “Non ho né tempo né voglia” (I have neither the time nor the wish).