19-Nov-2003, 20:16
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 | Moderator | | Join Date: Feb 2003 Country: USA Location: North Carolina First Language: English
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 Re: Not until
Quote: |
Originally Posted by Frances I don't agree that the DID is there purely for emphasis. The original sentence cannot be written with the DID simply omitted.
The sentence could also be rewritten in the following order:
Until he arrived home, he did not find he'd left it in the restaurant.
Here it is clear that the DID is required because of the NOT. Quote: |
Originally Posted by Casiopea
Yes. The 2nd part, "did he find he'd left..." is OK. :D
he did (in fact) find.... ( did refers to 'it's a fact'; used for emphasis) Quote: |
Originally Posted by nicolas When would we put auxiliary verb in that position? When and Why? | did he (in fact) find.... ( did is moved to the verb position)
Not until X verb Y
X = he had arrived home
Y = he find he had left the key....
If we add a verb, then 'did' becomes ungrammatical:
It was not until he had arrived home did he find.... Ungrammatical
:D | By the way, the original sentence is not grammatical to me. I prefer:
Not until he had arrived home did he find he had left....
:D |
That's good too.
:D  |