No sooner had he arrived...

Question

How do you explain the reverse Subject Verb position of this sentence? "No sooner had he arrived than she left the party."

Anonymous · Accepted Answer

I believe that the explanation (this one is difficult to explain) for this is that certain constructions like this - for example: "No sooner had X arrived/sat down/gotten up/etc. than..." or "No sooner was X settled in/rested/etc. than..." or "No sooner did X arrive/settle in/etc. than..." - are idiomatic, and the rather unusual reversed verb is characteristic of this idiom. This idiom means that as soon as X arrived/sat down/etc., Y - perhaps deliberately, and because of X's action - did something.

The sentence, "No sooner had he arrived than she left the party.", means that as soon as he arrived, she left the party. There is the implication in this particular idiom that his arrival may have had something to do with her leaving, or that her leaving at the moment he arrived had some significance to it, and was not merely coincidental.

This idiomatic construction is not used unless her leaving was not merely coincidental with his arriving, and had some significance to it. This is perhaps the reason for the unusual verb reversal. The reversed verb, in a situation that doesn't seem to call for it, catches your attention, which is the whole point, since there is some significance to her leaving, other than mere coincidence.

Cool Breeze · Answer

Tamara Grobschmidt"No sooner had he arrived than she left the party."

When a negative or restrictive word or phrase such as no sooner, never, seldom, only, nor, hardly, neither, not until, rarely, scarcely is placed in initial position for emphasis, inversion normally occurs in the main clause. Except for neither and nor, this usage is mostly limited to formal style.

Never does he smile.
Only when I talked to him did I realise the enormity of the problem.
Not until the sun rose did we see all the devastation the earthquake had caused.
No sooner had I sat down than it began to rain.

- I don't like it.
- Nor/Neither do I.

CB

No sooner had he arrived...

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