Scarcely at the beginning with no inversion

Status
Not open for further replies.

ademoglu

Senior Member
Joined
Sep 18, 2014
Member Type
Student or Learner
Native Language
Turkish
Home Country
Turkey
Current Location
Turkey
Hi,

http://www.learnersdictionary.com/definition/scarcely

- Scarcely a day goes by when they don't see or talk to each other.

I have come across the sentence above that begins with 'scarcely'. I would like to ask why the inversion is not used in that sentence although it starts with 'scarcely'? Why not this one:

- Scarcely does a day go by when they don't see or talk to each other.

Thanks.
 

Rover_KE

Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Jun 20, 2010
Member Type
Retired English Teacher
Native Language
British English
Home Country
England
Current Location
England
Both versions are correct.
 

MikeNewYork

VIP Member
Joined
Nov 13, 2002
Member Type
Academic
Native Language
American English
Home Country
United States
Current Location
United States
The inversion occurs with an auxiliary verb and the subject. There is no auxiliary verb in the first sentence.
 

Tdol

No Longer With Us (RIP)
Staff member
Joined
Nov 13, 2002
Native Language
British English
Home Country
UK
Current Location
Japan
It's an optional inversion rather than an obligatory one.
 

TheParser

VIP Member
Joined
Dec 8, 2009
Member Type
Other
Native Language
English
Home Country
United States
Current Location
United States
***** NOT A TEACHER *****


Thank you, Ademoglu, for asking that question. I learned so much from the other posters' answers, and Tdol's comment that "Scarcely a day goes by ...." does NOT require inversion really hit the nail on the head. (Like you, I had assumed that a sentence starting with "scarcely" needed inversion.)

I went to my beloved "books" section of Google and found many examples. I discovered that this exception to the rule seems to be restricted to certain words. I found that most of the examples involved the following nouns:

"Scarcely a [day, week, minute, page, year, moment, case, hour, nanosecond, month, Sunday, etc.] goes by that ...."

By the way, I am sure that you already know that the inverted version ("Scarcely does a page go by in his books ....") is considered formal. It is usually restricted to writing and occasionally to elegant speeches given to an audience.

I would probably tell someone: "Nowadays I am able to control my ice cream eating. In the past, however, scarcely a day would go by that I didn't eat a huge amount of ice cream."

If I wanted to be very dramatic or emphatic, I might say "...scarcely would a day go by that I didn't eat a huge amount of ice cream."



Scarcely does a day go by that I do not learn more English grammar from members' questions.


James
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top