He learns English hard, does John.

[BobK]

Sorry - I assumed this was in the Ask a Teacher forum. All but the most advanced students of ELT want to avoid ambiguity. What you do here is your own business

b

[Barb_D]

Sorry - I assumed this was in the Ask a Teacher forum.

b

Me too! That's what I get for going by "new posts" instead of by forum.

[notletrest]

Hmm - didn't think of that. I assumed that notlerest had found sentence 2 (different font) and was trying to use the word in another context invented by him or her, but with 'hard' used in the same sense ('difficult/taxing/arduous...'), successfully matching the rather archaic sentence tag 'has Ma Parker'/'does John'.

b

Just as your assumption, first I learned that “ In even more informal style, the operator is sometimes included with postponed identification to some dialects, there may be inversion when the verb is be. . He is a completely idiot, is John. = John is..“ (Quirk, p.1301) It reminds me of the sentence “She’s had a hard life, has Ma Parker.” Then the question comes to me why does Quirk only point out “when the verb is be” and without an example of verb do ?
Please help me ,teachers!Thanks!

[BobK]

Is that p 1301 Quirk quote right? It should be either 'He is a complete idiot...' or 'He is completely idiotic...'.

b

[notletrest]

Is that p 1301 Quirk quote right? It should be either 'He is a complete idiot...' or 'He is completely idiotic...'.

b

Sorry , I am so careless. The page is 1310,not 1301.The sentence is :He's a complete idiot, is John. It is not that " He is completely idiotic...."
I feel ashamed for myself!
Thank you, indeed!