Ni or o in sentence based on ningún?

Question

No vengo muy bien preparado. Pues, no tengo ningún libro __ un lápiz.

a. y     b. ni      c. o       d. e         e. u

Answer 1

When you use "ningun" or "ninguno", you mean neither. Ningun vaso esta limpio means neither glass is clean. You can ask, ni este ni aquel? which is Neither this, nor that? So, one "ni" is neither, the other "ni" is nor. If you said, no este o el otro, everyone would understand you, but they would know you are not fluent in Spanish.

If you said, ni este o el otro, it would also be obvious that you are still learning Spanish. O means or. It is normally used in positive sentences. When you use ningun, you are using a negative form. Ningun coche es azul means that no car is blue. In this case, if you answer el de adelante o el the la derecha es azul, you are contradicting the sentence ningun coche es azul. It would make no sense for someone to tell you that no car is blue when there are blue cars. I can't think of a sentence based on ningun, in which a real answer would include "o".

Answer 2

This is a tricky question and may depend on how one was trained in grammar.

Personally, I would say the most grammatically correct way would be to say "No tengo ni un libro ni un lapiz.

However, "no tengo ningun libro ni lapiz" would also suffice.