Why is this sentence ungrammatical? There put a student an amazing answer to the test. Answer It’s not ungrammatical. It’s simply a marked order rather than the normal order. The normal order of English is subject–verb–object (SOV) for transitive verbs and subject–verb–complement (SVC) otherwise. The important thing is that normally English is SV, not VS. … Read more
If the man had his life partner, he would be very happy. Had the man his life partner, he would be very happy. Is this inversion valid? I have learned that Had inversion only occurs in past perfect tense and also I can’t find any example that represents Had inversion occuring in past tense. Answer … Read more
I know that whenever we bring “not only” at the beginning of a sentence, what comes after it has to be in question form. Now, I’m having a problem with the negative form of this question. Which one of the following sentences is correct? Not only doesn’t she know, but also … or Not only … Read more
I was reading the Romance of Tristan and I came across the passage: “Therefore did Tristan claim justice and the right of battle and therefore was he careful to fail in nothing of the homage he owed King Mark, his lord.” I see these kinds of grammar reversals a lot in older English, like: “Quickly … Read more
I think it is kind of inversion and I’d found some info on Wikipedia, but I cannot recall what term this structure is, I even remember some examples from Wiki, say, “be it ever so humble, there’s no place like home.” Can anybody help me out? Answer In terms of morphology, the verb is in … Read more
Here’s a conversation between a receptionist of a hotel and a man wanting to meet a girl living in the hotel: Man: Is she in? Receptionist: Just missed her, actually, but you’re welcome to wait. Man: Okay. Maybe I will. She probably won’t be that long, right? Receptionist: Once she went out and didn’t come … Read more
I have just found the following sentence: Especially is this true in the field of psychology. I know the rule that says that whenever a sentence begins with an adverb that expresses negativity, it should come first the verb and then the subject. However, in this case, it does not seem to be the case … Read more
Can somebody help me categorise the meaning/purpose of the following sentence, and explain why the verb ‘was’ is at the end of what I hope is a nominal clause? I was shocked by how blue the sky was. ‘How blue the sky was’, is the nominal clause functioning as an object,no? It appears to replicate … Read more
In 2007, Steve Jobs announced the first iPhone. During the presentation, he introduced a feature called Multi-touch; he said, “And boy, have we patented it!” What I am wondering about is the reason why the subject “we”, and the auxiliary “have” are inverted here. It doesn’t seem to be an interrogative sentence to me, or … Read more
The sentence is: That’s why the future Internet will have to change, and change it will. This looks like a kind of an inverted sentence but I didn’t see such a structure before in the explanations given for inverted sentences from the websites which I looked at. Answer It’s still “inversion.” We can use inversion … Read more
