A method for erasing or programming a nonvolatile memory device comprising a memory cell, a sense amplifier, and a page memory, the method comprising the steps of: performing an erasure or programming operation in a manner dependent on the data stored in the page memory, reading out the content of the erased or programmed memory cells, modifying the content of the page memory in a manner dependent on the data read out, and performing a further erasure or programming operation in a manner dependent on the modified data, and the data read out from the erased or programmed memory cell being fed to the page memory, and the content of the page memory being modified in a manner solely dependent on these data and control signals controlling the temporal sequence.