Questions tagged [subject-verb-inversion]
Questions about reversing the order of a clause’s subject and verb, including subject–auxiliary inversion in questions and normal subject–verb swap in locative, directive, copular, and quotative inversions.
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Have a question about a particular use of inversion in English [duplicate]
It is found that the complainant, deterred by fear of the pollution which he would have suffered had he passed near the Pariahs, did not conduct the procession.
In the above sentence, why is the ...
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"the" with subjects in subject-verb inversion [closed]
Explanation of what subjects we can use in subject-verb inversion:
From an answer to “Here he comes”, “Here comes he” : The order of pronoun and verb in inversion:
1. On the corner is a cafe. – ...
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Do any exclamative sentences admit Subject-Auxiliary Inversion?
I just read in a comic book How great is it that your partner knows so many good restaurants! Is this substandard English? Or are there some types of clauses (e.g. It-clefts) that have exclamative ...
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Why does it ... vs Why it does ...? [duplicate]
So, I asked GPT-4 this question:
Do these both have the same meaning?
Why does it matter to the world?
Why it does matter to the world?
Both initially came back with yes answers.
But then I followed ...
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Have you a name?
In The Dig, a video game, character Maggie asks a question this way (full script here):
MAGGIE: Have you a name?
CREATOR: I had a name, when I was alive. Now that I am again and again dead, what need ...
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Negatives and Interrogatives with and without subject-verb inversion: "Didn't you have a lecture today?" vs "You didn't have a lecture today?"
"Didn't you have a lecture today?" vs "You didn't have a lecture today?"
Regarding the aforementioned clauses, from "experience", I can surmise different, subtle nuances. ...
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Question about putting an adverb before a verb
I need to mention here that I've read in an educational book that we normally or perhaps always put an adjective before a noun. We do not say: A day beautiful, we say: a beautiful day.
I am curious as ...
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Place of "not" in sentence
In The Island of Doctor Moreau they chant: "Are we not men?" So my question is: when we place not before men, not after are, what we are implementing?
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Not until [sentence] do [sentence]
Example: “Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves.” – Henry David Thoreau
Can someone explain the structure of the aforementioned sentence?
Can someone name this type of sentence?
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Inversion after "than"/"as"
I'd like to know (1) which of the following is the most natural and (2) whether any of the following is unnatural or ungrammatical:
(A) My system is no more expensive than yours would be.
(B) My ...
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Regarding a sentence involving coordination and subject-auxiliary inversion
When I am reading a paper, I come across a long sentence:
Only when this pain remains with you, is with you eternally, can you enjoy eternally the pace and dance of humanity, can praise the shouts ...
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Quotative inversion without a direct quote [duplicate]
It is commonly claimed that, when the object of a verb is a verbatim quotation, it may precede the verb. However, I have found numerous examples such that the verb may precede the subject even if ...
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When is this type of inversion usually used? [duplicate]
What is this inversion rule? I heard
"After bad weather comes fine weather", it was obvious for me that the word "comes" here was related to "fine weather". Yes, I learnt ...
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"implies the narrator"?
A sentence on this website reads:
It might well be, implies the narrator, that he made up the whole story, but he's content to leave it up to the reader to decide which "passages" of his ...
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Word order in embedded clause: "had little conception of... how supine was the Security Council"
I find the word order of this sentence interesting:
You will all know the outlines of this disaster, but I suggest that many people, including me before I went down this road, had really little ...
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What grammar is this: Only once you ... are you interested in [duplicate]
I came through a comment here
... Only once you know this are you interested in considering workarounds
I believe I can rephrase it to
"Once you know this, you are interested in considering ...
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How do I determine subject and subject complement in "A side-effect is the spread of commercialese to other domains."?
Consider this example:
Commercialese is an instrument of art,
designed to enrich and invigorate our
language—surely you will all agree
with this—, and we should encourage newcomers to learn ...
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Subject + verb inversion
I have come across, more and more frequently, the fact that writers move the verb forward in sentences like:
Today some English teachers attend to grammatical niceties in a more analytical way than ...
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Why is there subject auxiliary inversion in the embedded clause in "I wonder could we untie him"?
I was reading the book The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and there is a sentence from it I found quite strange:
"I wonder could we untie him as well?" said ...
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Inverse of dependency
In a project management context where A and B would be tasks, if A needs B, then B is a dependency of A. Is there a word to describe what A is to B?
As @KateGregory put it, I want to replace "we need ...
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Exclamation as a negative adverbal phrase for an inverted sentence?
I am wondering if it is possible to construct an emotional sentence with an exclamation followed by an inversion:
Holy cow is this fish small! [added:] How did it not sink your boat?
with the ...
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not only... but also (but also - together)
I know that parallelism is a maxim when it comes to talking about this matter, my question is:
Not only do I like chocolate, but I also like coffee. (this is correct)
Not only do I like chocolate, but ...
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Is this an inversion? If so, why would you use an inversion in this case?
Here's a quote from a CNN transcript, wherein a consumer psychologist says the following:
"What is relatively new are shoppers turning on other shoppers."
If "what is relatively new" were the subject,...
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Arise vs arises with singular subject and plural object
I've found a few similar questions here, but I'm still not sure in this specific case if there should be a preference for using the word arise or arises:
Originally proposed before BCS theory as a ...
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Inversion with a prepositional phrase [duplicate]
I understand inversion but I have a difficulty when it comes down to "there."
A: Under the window there stood a vase.
B: Under the window stood a vase.
Here my teacher said that option B ...
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Is inversion using the present perfect correct in ''Should you have decided...''?
In an email I received from my university, the following is stated:
Should you have decided to do the assignment, please send us an email.
My question is whether the inversion and usage of should is ...
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What is the term for a phrase like "school it is"?
I heard this kind of expression in conversation:
1)
A.- You should go to school and learn.
B.- All right, school it is.
2)
A.- Open the window unless there is better idea.
B.- (no ...
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"Is there" or "there is"?
Do I need to use "is there" or "there is" in the following sentence?
It is natural to ask under which conditions is there a subtype
relation between two given arrow types.
If I change "is" to "...
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Does the sentence 'Boy, are my arms tired' mean 'Boy, my arms are tired.'? [closed]
I found a meme that says 'I flew in from (wherever) and boy are my arms tired!'. I can understand what's funny about this meme but I can't understand why 'are my arms tired!' is used instead of 'my ...
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Why is inversion used in "And boy, have we patented it!"?
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 ...
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Can a positive statement be combined with a positive question tag like "did you" or is "didn't you" necessary?
Typically, when we ask for confirmation/denial of a statement, we say something like the following:
We turn left here, don't we?
You have a cat, don't you?
We've met before, haven't we?
...
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can we use inversion after "then"
In the following sentence, the inversion structure has been used because of "then" or does it have another reason?
The first moving pictures were simple "shadow shows" or " ...
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Would be possible were [duplicate]
The wheelbarrow is designed to distribute the weight of its load between the wheel and the operator, so enabling the convenient carriage of heavier and bulkier loads than would be possible were the ...
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When can an embedded interrogative clause exhibit Subject-Auxiliary Inversion?
I found in a comic book an interesting example of an embedded interrogative that had Subject-Auxiliary Inversion (SAI): I'm not too sure what exactly is it that you're asking. Is this Standard English ...
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Why isn't "witness" the third-person singular form in the example sentence?
The Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary gives, for the word witness, an example sentence as follows:
(Original Version)
Authentic Italian cooking is very healthy —— witness the low incidence
of ...
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Why can you say “not only will I” but not “not only I will”?
Given:
Not only will I be skipping the breakfast, but the lunch too.
Not only ❌I will be skipping the breakfast, but the lunch too.
Why does sentence (2) sound so terribly wrong? Why is sentence (1) ...
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”There are many who” vs ”Many are those who”
Is it grammatically correct to say:
Many are those who enjoy camping
and is it any different in meaning than
There are many (people) who enjoy camping
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Is there an inversion in the clause？ [closed]
The noise was like an English fox-hunt only better because every now and then with the music of the hounds was mixed the roar of the other lion and sometimes the far deeper and more awful roar of ...
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Can 'nowhere' be used as a subject?
I am utterly confused... The thing is I was helping a friend do an exercise in which she needed to put some words in the correct order to form a grammatical English sentence. The words in question ...
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Hitchhiker's Guide opening sentence analysis according to Verspoor and Sauter [duplicate]
Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of
the western spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded
yellow sun.
(Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams)
Does anyone ...
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Inversion after 'only when', 'only after', 'only if', 'only in this way' etc
I've learned it is obligatory to invert subject and verb when 'only when' is placed at the beginning of a sentence. However, I've recently found the sentence below.
"Only when the rule can have some ...
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Subjunctive "be" inversion [closed]
Can i invert the protasis bellow :
If you not be, ...
Into :
Be you not, ...
Will it not —in an archaic sense— be mistaken for imperative and will it convey the same conditional notion?
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"Be them" or "be they"?
Which of the following is grammatical?
He had lollies be they red or blue?
He had lollies be them red or blue?
It seems as if it could be them as an object of be.
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'Did/does' at head of subordinate phrase
He does have a sense of humour does Mr Marr.
Nigel Williams, 1992
Is this double use of do just doubly emphatic?
Secondly, why can't do be used similarly, for example with a plural proper noun?
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What's the difference between “(Had he not made / If he didn't make) a good impression, he wouldn't be a star today”?
How should I complete this sentence? (Only with the options given)
He wouldn't be the star he is today ________ a good impression in his early life
A. Had he not made
B. If he didn't make
So, B is ...
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"neither" as adverb leading sentence [duplicate]
Is it an accepted form to begin a sentence with the word "neither" used as an adverb?
Many grammar sources discuss sentences beginning with "neither", but only in the context of ...
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How we can omit the subjects in "not only but also" structure?
When we can omit the subject (or sometimes the verb) in the second part of "not only... but also" structure?
I have seen some examples:
Not only is he handsome but also intelligent
Not only ...
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Inversion in "only [adverb] have they"
I have seen this construction quite often:
Online ads have been around since the dawn of the Web, but only in
recent years have they become the rapturous life dream of Silicon
Valley.
What is ...
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Does 'Only' always trigger inversion? [duplicate]
Is every sentence that "Only" comes first inverted?
For example, which one is correct?
"Only after every person on Earth forgets me am I dead."
or "Only after every person on ...
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When can I use "Only do ..." vs. when must I use "Only ..." without the "do"?
I'm writing a scientific paper and my supervisor (who is non-native speaker, whereas I am a native speaker) asked me to change this construct:
Only do males have a y chromosome.
to
Only males ...
