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.
313
questions
2
votes
1
answer
188
views
neither vs nor inversion
I have never seen him laugh, nor have I ever seen him lose his temper.
Is there a difference in the use of inversion with "neither" and "nor"? For instance, is it correct to ...
- 47
0
votes
3
answers
223
views
The problem with "there"
It is natural, now, to think of there being connected with a sign, also what I should like to call the sense of the sign.
It's the first sentence of the paragraph. There wasn't a context about some ...
- 27
0
votes
0
answers
35
views
Meaning of 'To Marx are due X and Y' [duplicate]
This question is about the emphasized sentence in the following paragraph from Proposed Roads to Freedom by Bertrand Russell:
Socialism as a power in Europe may be said to begin with Marx. It is true ...
- 455
-1
votes
0
answers
67
views
Why don't indirect questions undergo subject-auxiliary inversion, like in languages like Spanish? [duplicate]
Just two days ago, I asked a question about indirect questions in Spanish and English.
Usually, when we pose an indirect question in English, we first ask a direct question like this: "Do you ...
- 23
1
vote
3
answers
123
views
Is “How tiresome are you” ungrammatical?
On a post on twitter a girl had sent messages to her boyfriend and one of the messages was
How tiresome are you.
People were saying that it is grammatically incorrect but I don't understand why ...
1
vote
5
answers
95
views
Question on word order for inverted Sentence structure
I have an odd sentence structure that I'm proofing that, for the author's idiosyncratic needs, has to maintain an inverted structure.
The sentence is
trustworthy must he be who would be allowed our ...
- 11
6
votes
1
answer
827
views
Is "don't" a particle of its own?
I noticed an oddity in the sentence Why don't you just do it?: Although I always thought of don't simply as of a short form of do not it seems to me as if this is not the case in this sentence. ...
- 417
2
votes
2
answers
739
views
What Is 'Given' Information according to the 'Given-before-New' Principle?
In Steven Pinker's book The Sense of Style, he talks about the 'given-before-new' principle (most notably on pages 131–138). He states, '... people learn by integrating new information into their ...
- 351
1
vote
0
answers
111
views
Nor + inversion or no inversion?
My teacher showed me these examples at the lesson about conjunctions:
a) She does not eat meat, nor does she drink milk.
b) My grandfather could neither read nor write, but he was a very wise person.
...
- 11
0
votes
2
answers
194
views
Comma and inversion
I just wrote an English exam and I'm not sure if these two sentences which I've written are correct. If they're not, please tell me and if they are please back that up with a credible source.
Not ...
2
votes
0
answers
46
views
How do multiple modal constructions work with ellipsis or inversion?
I have been researching on multiple modal constructions, which is a dialect mainly used in
The Southern United States. Unlike Standard English, this dialect allows more than one modal auxiliary per ...
- 21
3
votes
3
answers
331
views
Why is the structure interrogative-which-word – subject – verb (including question mark) being used so often? Is it grammatical?
I've noticed that more and more headlines of articles and ads (excluding those in more traditional online media) are of the structure interrogative-subject-verb instead of interrogative-verb-subject.
...
- 193
2
votes
2
answers
57
views
Inversion — a really odd example
In the book Story Genius by Lisa Cron we read:
Even if she's only six, she already has a worldview that, like most of us, she's never even questioned—why should she? As far as she can see it's "...
- 21
0
votes
0
answers
57
views
Which of these possible multi-choice answers is correct and why? [duplicate]
A Chinese teacher of English asked me about the following, taken from an English test for Chinese people. It's quite tricky I think.
I would like to know three things:
Which answer or answers do you ...
- 101
1
vote
0
answers
79
views
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. ...
- 244