GRAMMAR

FUNNY STRUCTURES

Inversion after negative adverbs

Introducción

Not until I speak perfect English will I stop studying hard.

• In this lesson we are going to learn what inversion refers to from a

grammatical point of view. It consists basically of changing the order of
the subject and the auxiliary verb of a sentence in a particular
circumstance; particularly we are going to study this structure after
negative adverbs, when these are placed at the beginning of the
sentence.
• We have to take into account that this structure is usually found in formal
or literary English. In a less formal style, sentences begin with the
subject.

Explicación

Inversión: it occurs when the word order of a sentence changes.

When to use inversion:

o Time Relationship:

1. With negative adverbs:

No sooner/hardly/scarcely/barely had I got my breath back when it

was time to go again.

2. With phrases that use not:

Not until/Not since/Not for one minute. Not for a minute do I

imagine they´ll come back.

3. With time phrases that use only:

Only after/only then/only later/only when. Only later did she realice
what had happened.

o Frequency:
 4. With negative adverbs which emphasise frequency at the
beginnig of the sentence.

Never/Rarely/Seldom/Hardly ever. Never did he wear a suit. Rarely

do they fail their exams.

5. With negative adverbs at the beginning of a sentence to

emphasise how infrequently things happen.

Little/Nowhere. Little did he know that it would be the last time.

Nowhere was a replacement to be found.

o General Emphasis

6. With phrases that use only:

Only by/only in this way. Only by hard work will we finish the task.

7. With phrases that use no:

In no way/On no account/Under no circumstances. Under no

circumstances can you go to visit them. On no account will you say
this again.

NO INVERSION

We use inversion when the adverb modifies the verb, but not when it modifies
the noun:

• Rarely seen during the day, the badger is a famously shy animal (no
inversion).

• Hardly anyone knows about it (no inversión).

Cleft sentences

Introducción

It is my English what I’m trying to improve.

• What are cleft sentences?

A cleft sentence is a type of sentence which results of the change of the usual
structure of an ordinary sentence in order to emphasize a particular piece of
information; this process consists of dividing (‘cleft’) a message into two clauses,
which lets us focus on a particular or new information.

Explicación
In English we have several resources to emphasize a piece of information. One
of these resources is the so called cleft-sentence, which can be of two different
types: it-cleft sentence and Wh-cleft sentence

• IT-CLEFT SENTENCES
Structure:

IT + VERB TO BE + PHRASE + DEFINING RELATIVE CLAUSE

In order to form the defining relative clause, we have to use a relative

pronoun (who, whom, whose, which, that) or a relative adverb (where,
when, why). Also, we will use that in the case that we bring the whole adverbial
clause into focus; see the following examples:

The girl bought an expensive car last year

It was the girl who bought an expensive car in 2010

It was an expensive car which /that the girl bought in 2010

It was 2010 when the girl bought an expensive car.

It was in 2010 that the girl bought an expensive car.

Here you have some rules which you have to take into account:

a) If you use a personal pronoun after it + to be, use an object pronoun:

It was the girl who bought an expensive car in 2010

It was her who bought an expensive car in 2010

b) When a personal subject is the focus, we can omit the relative pronoun in
informal situations when it is the object of the verb. See the following
examples:

You spoke to my brother yesterday

It was my brother who you spoke to yesterday

It was my brother you spoke to yesterday (informal style)

 c) Finally, when the plural subject is the focus, we use a plural verb but
it+be remains singular:

It was my friends who were at the party last night

• WH-CLEFT SENTENCES

Structure:

WH-CLAUSE + BE + EMPHASIZED WORD/PHRASE

These sentences are introduced by a wh-clause, usually what, but we can also
use why, where, how, etc… Normally, the information included in the wh-clause
is already-known (or mentioned) information, whereas the one in the following
clause is new information.

Look at the following example:

I don’t know what to buy for his birthday; I don’t know what he needs

What he needs is a new mobile phone

(Old information: we already know that there is something they need; new
information: now we know that we need a new mobile phone)

If the emphasized phrase contains a verb, it is usually a bare infinitive of TO

infinitive:

What he needs is (to) work less and enjoy more

To highlight the action we use a form of DO in the WH-clause. If the highlighted

verb is in the continuous or perfect, the form of DO matches it

My co-workers are having a meeting to discuss the project.

What my co-workers are doing is having a meeting to discuss the project.

• OTHER CLEFT SENTENCES

The thing that I most disliked was the colour of her dress.

The only thing I won’t do is phone her again.

All you need is love

ELLIPSIS

Introducción
In this lesson we are going to study ellipsis, which is a construction that we
use when we want to leave out items which would be normally used in an
ordinary sentence according to the grammatical rules.

Explicación
As we said before, we can omit certain parts of the sentence by means of
ellipsis.

Example:

I was to rent the bigger car and Mary was to rent the smaller car.

I was to rent the bigger car and Mary, the smaller.

It is common to both formal and informal English, but there is a difference

which must be taken into account: in formal English, the omitted words in the
elliptical sentence must be ones that would be repeated in the full sentence,
whereas this requirement does not exist when referring to formal style. Thus, in
formal English, we are only allowed to omit only what would be duplicated in
the normal sentence. Look at the following examples:

Formal English:

She was the best tennis player at that time and remains the best tennis player
ever. (full sentence)

She was, and remains, the best tennis player ever. (elliptical sentence)

Informal English:

Do you fancy a beer? (full sentence)

Fancy a beer? (elliptical sentence)

Finally, in formal English the only way to use unduplicated ellipsis is in

quotations, represented by a series of dots (… ) which substitutes the words
that the writer has chosen to omit in his/her quotation.
The days that followed the flight of James saw even greater confusion in
England than the months which preceded the Restoration … Then there
had been too many claimants to legal authority; now there was no legal
authority at all.

The use of dots to indicate unfinished spoken sentences is a feature of narrative

and informal English only –

‘Well! I mean…’