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Anonymous Posted 10 years ago
Grammar

inversion of should

Hello, I have problems in understanding the following sentence: And in the middle of the woods what should I come across but this enormous lion.
Can I rephrase it as What are the chances to come across this enormous lion?
Why is inversion of should?
  

Top answer

Fundamentally it is saying "I encountered an enormous lion in the middle of the woods". The "what should I ... " phrasing is used to add a note of surprise or drama, implying that the encounter was unexpected.

— GPY

  • Fundamentally it is saying "I encountered an enormous lion in the middle of the woods".
  • The "what should I ...
  • " phrasing is used to add a note of surprise or drama, implying that the encounter was unexpected.
  • I would put a comma after "woods".
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4 Answers
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Fundamentally it is saying "I encountered an enormous lion in the middle of the woods". The "what should I ... ?" phrasing is used to add a note of surprise or drama, implying that the encounter was unexpected. I would put a comma after "woods".
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No, you don't understand correctly.

Consider this simple example.
In the park, I saw Tom. This is a common sentence structure.
In the park, who should I see but Tom! This is a special structure used to express surprise.

You can rephrase your sentence as
And in the middle of the woods, I came across this enormous lion.

Hi GPY - You
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The general pattern is

[What / Who] should [subject] [verb] but

did can substitute for should.

See http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/what/who%20should%20someone%20see%20but

CJ
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