Functional Grammar

Question

Question -As soon as he completed his term, he was transferred.My attempt(s)-No sooner had he completed his term than he was transferred.ORNo sooner did he complete his term than he was transferred.If any of my attempts are correct then let me know which one and WHY?

Ozzourti · Accepted Answer

Are you supposed to use "no sooner"? If so, then:

No sooner had he completed his term than he was transferred.

Past Simple would be fine as well, but Past Perfect puts more emphasis on the sequence of events.

Dimsumexpress · Answer

Hi,
It is "than" not "then" used in this construction, and it is only correct with "had", not "did

This can explain it much better than I can.

http://www.dailywritingtips.com/no-sooner-than-not-when/

No sooner…than is a two-part comparative adverb.
According to the American Heritage® Book of English Usage (1996):

Because the sooner in no sooner is a comparative adverb like better in no better, the expression should be followed by than, not when: No sooner had she come than the maid knocked. I had no sooner left than she called.
My search did turn up several odd incomplete uses of no sooner…missing its obligatory than:

So no sooner had he touched her, and begun to dally, she caught his hands, and spoke roughly to him, bidding him go away, as she did not want him. –Translation of a Buddhist story

No sooner had she committed to hunkering down in Alaska to “get back to work,” the Last Frontier’s rogue governor, Sarah Palin, is headed back to the campaign trail again… The Huffington Post

Ozzourti · Answer

dimsumexpressIt is "than" not "then" used in this construction, and it is only correct with "had", not "did

Hi.

Are you saying that "did" doesn't work with "no sooner" at all?
And neither the original poster nor I used "then" so I'm not sure what you were referring to with the first part of your comment.

Dimsumexpress · Answer

Hi,
About "then", it was my fault to have misinterpreted the thread. About using "did" in the "no sooner" inversion pattern, it is not a usage which I personally deem correct. If I am wrong, I stand corrected. One observation came, however, from doing the research on the topic: "on sooner". From my point of view, when a sentence starts with " no sooner ", almost majority of the examples are followed by a past perfect construction. So I still stick to what I believe: past perfect is the grammatical choice for the inversion usage. Having said that, I also commented: " it is only correct with "had", not "did", I am retracting this comment because I am not a 100% confident that the "did" use was wrong. Perhaps you can share with me your interpretation of this excerpt from Swan. I completely agree with what Swan said though at the end which was:

>>>>“No sooner had I finished the meal than I started feeling hungry again”.
It’s actually a rather literary construction. I’d expect to read it, maybe write it, but I probably wouldn’t say it. Instead I think I’d say something like this:
“The train came in just after I got to the station”, or “ had only just got to the station when the train came in”…or something like that.>>>>>>

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/radio/specials/1535_questionanswer/page61.shtml

Prof Michael Swan answers:

OK, yeah, that’s a good and interesting question. And let’s make it clear first of all what order things happen in. If I say “no sooner had I arrived at the station than the train came in”, we need to be clear what happened first. Does it mean, the train came in and then me, or I came in and right after me the train? Well, my experience is actually that I arrive at the station, and then the train doesn’t come in for hours.

But, to answer your question, if I say “no sooner had I arrived at the station than the train came in”, it means, I came in, and right after me the train. I got there first… just! I’ll give you another couple of examples:

“No sooner had I put the phone down than it rang again”.

“No sooner had I finished the meal than I started feeling hungry again”.

It’s actually a rather literary construction. I’d expect to read it, maybe write it, but I probably wouldn’t say it. Instead I think I’d say something like this:

“The train came in just after I got to the station”, or “ had only just got to the station when the train came in”…or something like that.

Functional Grammar

As soon as he completed his term, he was transferred.

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