A friend of mine said "...I never saw you during school."
For some reason I wanted to respond "Neither I you." I am certain I have heard this reply before, but, looking at it now, it does not seem grammatically correct.
Is saying "Neither I you" correct? If not what would be the most concise to tell him that I had not seen him either ie Neither have I seen you?
I find it comprehensible. I would not write it, but I could imagine myself saying it. I consider it an elliptical reduction like so:
Neither [did] I [see] you.
In one of the other answers we have:
Nor did I see you.
I probably wouldn't use that construction very frequently, but I don't think it is wrong.
Probably the clearest way to say what you want would be to write the sentence as follows:
I didn't see you either
Thus, you avoid some difficulties incumbent in the use of neither and nor (which are perhaps differences between BrE and AmE?)
I'd consider "Nor I you" acceptable, as an elliptical form of "Nor did I see you."
The answer "Neither I you" would, to my mind, pass muster as a short verbal response, that might be somewhat 'terse' - say for example I was a bit put out that I hadn't met up with the speaker. It also has a slight feel of the Victorian era about it, and might well have been uttered by perhaps Holmes when he was exasperated by Watson, for example. Or indeed in a written form such as a "cable" when every word cost ~ which makes one wonder: Might it be found somewhere in Twitter these days ?
In all use of "Neither" with "I/you etc." we face an elliptical spoken form where the verb is mute but fully understood which is the main aim.
So "Neither I you" means "Neither (did) I (see) you". But back in UK you must prevent such expression :)
