How does the sentence below sound to native speakers in terms of inversion with such...that? Would 'Such was my effort that...' be better? Many thanks in advance.
Such an effort did I make that I soon caught up with the others.
Last edited by joham; 31-May-2012 at 03:22. Reason: one sentence added.
It depends on the situation. To be honest, both "Such was my effort ..." and "Such an effort did I make ..." sound rather contrived and perhaps a little old-fashioned. In normal, everyday conversation I would expect to hear "I made such an effort that I soon/quickly caught up with the others".Originally Posted by joham
In written form, either of yours would sound fine if they were in keeping with the tone and the form of the rest of the piece.
Many thanks, you'all.
The CAMBRIDGE ADVANCED GRAMMAR IN USE by Martin Hewings contains this 'rule':
We can use such + be at the beginning of a clause to emphasise the extent or degree of
something. The subject and verb are inverted. Compare:
Such is the popularity of the play that the theatre is likely to be full every night, or
The play is so popular that the theatre is likely to be full every night.
The book mentions no other Such-patterns of inversion so I thought by mistake that there were no other patterns of it.
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