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Anonymous Posted 14 years ago
Grammar

ESL

Hello everyone. One of my students just asked me about this:
''They got in only after the bell rang.''
''Only after the bell rang did they get in.''
I'm actually not sure which grammatical tense is being used in the second sentence and how to explain the change to him. Could anyone offer some advice?
  

Top answer

The tense is simple past ('rang') in both sentences, and the sentences are synonymous. The verb experiences inversion ('they got in' > 'did they get in') because of the fronting of the 'only' adverbial clause, as it does with negative adverbials ('Never before have I seen such a performance').

— Mister Micawber

  • The tense is simple past ('rang') in both sentences, and the sentences are synonymous.
  • The verb experiences inversion ('they got in' > 'did they get in') because of the fronting of the 'only' adverbial clause, as it does with negative adverbials ('Never before have I seen such a performance').
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4 Answers
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The tense is simple past ('rang') in both sentences, and the sentences are synonymous. The verb experiences inversion ('they got in' > 'did they get in') because of the fronting of the 'only' adverbial clause, as it does with negative adverbials ('Never before have I seen such a performance').
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Brutal. I have no idea why we do that, but here are some terms in case they're helpful. The verb is past tense, of course, and it changes aspect from simple to what is called emphatic or intensive, take your pick. I like "emphatic" because "intensive" means other things in grammar. "Got" (or "got in", if you like) becomes "did get" (or "did get in").
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It is not the emphatic form. When the first word of a sentences is a negative word such as 'never', or a word that has negative connotations, such as 'rarely (= almost never) or 'only (= not until), then the subject and auxiliary verb are inverted - as they are in forming questions. When there is no auxiliary verb present, then we use DO.

We also use DO in emphatic utterances: "I do like
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Inversion occurs if a setence begins with a negative adverb or adverbial phrase to emphasise the meaning of the adverb.
Emphatic along with negative adverb form cause the inversion.
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