Phil Young’s English School · Sheet 10 of 11
Two opposite problems in one family. English fixes its word order more tightly than Portuguese does — and then deliberately reverses it in a handful of structures that have to be learned as a set. The last patterns turn to what should come out of a sentence rather than where it goes. Twelve patterns below, then thirty exercises.
English fixes its word order more tightly than Portuguese does — and then reverses it in a handful of structures that have to be learned as a set.
When several adverbials pile up after a verb, English orders them manner, then place, then time. Time can also move to the front of the sentence for emphasis — Yesterday the technicians examined the samples carefully — but it does not belong in the middle of the run.
Once a question is folded inside a larger sentence it stops being a question and takes subject-before-verb order, with no do, does or did. This applies after know, wonder, decide, explain, ask, tell me, I'm not sure. The clue is that the sentence as a whole is a statement, whatever the question word suggests.
With separable phrasal verbs a full noun phrase can go either side of the particle, but a pronoun must go between the verb and the particle. Same for turn it down, bring it up, carry it out, set it up, point it out. Inseparable verbs never split at all: deal with it, never deal it with.
Put a negative or near-negative adverbial first and the subject and auxiliary swap places, exactly as in a question. The triggers: never, rarely, seldom, hardly, scarcely, no sooner, not until, at no time, under no circumstances, little. If there is no auxiliary, do / does / did appears to carry the inversion.
Same rule as pattern 4: only then, only after, only when, only by, only in this way, not only. The inversion falls on the main clause, not on the clause inside the only phrase — the auditors filed stays in normal order and did the committee approve inverts.
Drop if and invert instead: Had she known, Were it not for the funding, Should you require assistance. Only these three forms work this way. Note that without either if or the inversion, the sentence becomes a comma splice — which is how the error usually presents itself.
A fronted so + adjective or such + noun inverts what follows: So difficult was the exam that…, Such was the delay that…. Neither and nor invert too when they open a clause: Neither did she attend, nor was the report filed. Contrast the short agreement forms, which invert as well: So do I, Neither do I.
When a phrase of place opens the sentence and the verb is be, lie, stand, sit or come, the subject follows the verb. This is the same structure as there is and here comes, and the risk is the same: the verb must agree with the subject that comes after it, not with anything in the fronted phrase.
A pronoun cannot repeat a subject that has already been named. The error appears most often after a long relative clause, when the writer has lost track of the subject and restates it. Delete the pronoun — the noun phrase at the front is the subject.
One word already contains the other's meaning: return back, repeat again, advance forward, rise up, join together, new innovation, past history, final outcome, basic fundamentals, free gift, close proximity, personal opinion. Also the reason is because, which should be the reason is that or simply because.
The swaps worth memorizing: due to the fact that → because, at this point in time → now, in the event that → if, in spite of the fact that → although, for the purpose of → to, a large number of → many. Also collapse empty openers: There are many people who believe becomes Many people believe. Length does not raise a writing score; density does.
Hardly, scarcely, barely and rarely are already negative, so pairing them with not doubles the negation. The same applies to not … nothing and without … no. Keep one negative and let it do the work.
Questions 1–12. Tap the version with the words in the right order.
Questions 13–22. Four parts of each sentence are underlined. Tap the one that is wrong. Only one contains an error.
Questions 23–30. Each sentence contains exactly one error of order or redundancy — and at least one other structure that is already correct. Find the error, write the correction, and name the pattern behind it. Write your version in your notebook, then reveal the correction and compare.