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Jooney Posted 14 years ago
Grammar
Inversion
Hi,
Fifteen years ago, on a trip to Italy, he bought an automatic polenta maker. Italians use them all the time, but Mr. Koetke has not gotten around to plugging his in. His trips to Japan have yielded nearly a dozen handmade knives, purchased at great expense in tiny shops. Most are in mint condition. “The truth is, only if you’re slicing fish for sushi and sashimi eight hours a day is the investment worth it,” he said.
Q) Why do you need a subject-auxiliary inversion in the underlined part? Is it obligatory?
I'd appreciate your answer. Thank you.
Fifteen years ago, on a trip to Italy, he bought an automatic polenta maker. Italians use them all the time, but Mr. Koetke has not gotten around to plugging his in. His trips to Japan have yielded nearly a dozen handmade knives, purchased at great expense in tiny shops. Most are in mint condition. “The truth is, only if you’re slicing fish for sushi and sashimi eight hours a day is the investment worth it,” he said.
Q) Why do you need a subject-auxiliary inversion in the underlined part? Is it obligatory?
I'd appreciate your answer. Thank you.
Top answer
In English, there are many occassions for which subject-auxiliary inversion is used, but one such instance is when you have declarative sentences with restrictive elements or conditions. " The latter is an awkward future-conditional construction, thus, the subject-auxiliary inversion in the example is a cleaner way to say this.
- In English, there are many occassions for which subject-auxiliary inversion is used, but one such instance is when you have declarative sentences with restrictive elements or conditions.
- " The latter is an awkward future-conditional construction, thus, the subject-auxiliary inversion in the example is a cleaner way to say this.
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3 Answers
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In English, there are many occassions for which subject-auxiliary inversion is used, but one such instance is when you have declarative sentences with restrictive elements or conditions. The key in this sentence is "only if." That restriction/condition makes this the case."The truth is, only if you are slicing fish for sushi and sashimi eight hours a day is the investment worth it." is like say
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jooney“The truth is, only if you’re slicing fish for sushi and sashimi eight hours a day is the investment worth it,”The reason for the inversion is only. Inversion occurs in the main clause. You'll find more examples
CB
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