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Excluding "also" at the beginning of the sentence (or phrase), where is emphasizes the conjunctive function, there are (as far as I can tell) four positions for "also":

(1) before the main verb

She also did that.

(2) after the first auxiliary verb

She had also been doing that.

(3) after a so-called main "be"

She was also there.

(4) at the end of the sentence

"Also" is said to be a focusing adverb. As far as I can tell, the focus always seems to be on the whole sentence.

My question is, are these examples with "also" at the end of the sentence acceptable? If so, is there a difference in focus from the corresponsing example where it is central?

"She also did that" vs. "She did that also"

"She had also been doing that" vs. "She had been doing that also"

"She was also there" vs "She was there also"

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  • When you put it after the noun, it focuses on the noun and is interpreted like "as well" or "in addition": "She did that as well."
    – Barmar
    Commented Apr 19, 2023 at 21:59
  • Since "also" is an adverb, it can go almost anywhere in a clause since no matter where it ends up, it modifies the clause's verb (e.g., "Also, I went to the store with Bob," "I also went to the store with Bob," "I went also to the store with Bob," "I went to the store also with Bob," "I went to the store with Bob also."), albeit possibly with somewhat different effect, depending on tone, inflection, and context.
    – Benjamin Harman
    Commented Apr 20, 2023 at 0:29
  • 1
    (3) is the same as (2). In the example given, be is the first auxiliary verb. It's required for locatives, but it's still an auxiliary verb; they have a lot of jobs. "Main be" is a grammar school-level term. Be is always an auxiliary verb, and as I mentioned the other day, "main verb" is not well defined. As for where to put it, where would you put yesterday, or sleepily or any other adverb?
    – John Lawler
    Commented Apr 20, 2023 at 1:51
  • @BenjaminHarman English does have a number of adverb positioning rules, particularly when those adverbs are not surrounded by commas and made into parentheticals.
    – alphabet
    Commented Apr 20, 2023 at 4:26
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    As an example: consider the sentence "He helped also her." This sentence is incorrect, or at least very questionable; we would expect e.g. "he helped her also."
    – alphabet
    Commented Apr 20, 2023 at 5:28

1 Answer 1

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Your intuitions are basically correct. According to Huddleston & Pullum (2002), p. 593:

  1. "Also" typically occurs between the subject and the verb. However, if there are any auxiliaries present, it can often placed after some (or all) of them; with some exceptions, it usually goes after the first auxiliary. So we have "she also did that," "she had also been doing that," or "she was also there" (counting to be as an auxiliary).
  2. As you have noticed, "also" can instead be placed at the end of a sentence, as in "she did that also."
  3. Finally, in informal style, "also" can be used as a connective at the start of a sentence: "Also, she did that."

In case (3), the whole clause is the focus. But in (1) and (2), there is no precise relationship between the position of the word "also" and its focus. So, for example, "Sue also bought the CD" could mean many things, with the focus italicized:

  1. Sue also bought the CD. = Sue bought the CD. In addition, someone else bought the CD.
  2. Sue also bought the CD. = Sue bought the CD. In addition, she did something else to the CD.
  3. Sue also bought the CD. = Sue bought the CD. In addition, she bought something else.
  4. Sue also bought the CD. = Sue bought the CD. In addition, she did something else.

The focus usually, but not always, reflects prosodic stress, hence the italics. The statements after "in addition" are technically implicatures, not entailments, but I digress.

I defer any discussion of coordinations like "Sue bought a CD and also a book." Putting "also" in other places can at times be marginally acceptable, but the above are the usual rules.

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  • By saying "finally" you imply that those are the only three possibilities, but what about others? For example: "Sue could have also bought the CD."
    – MarcInManhattan
    Commented Apr 20, 2023 at 4:59
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    @MarcInManhattan Option (1) uses the word "typically"; I'll edit it to clarify.
    – alphabet
    Commented Apr 20, 2023 at 5:00

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