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Petusek Posted 10 years ago
Grammar
Strange position of 'often' in passive sentences
Hello everyone,
I'm familiar with the rule that says that frequency adverbs such as 'often' should come after the verb 'to be' in present simple passive clauses such as the following:
...is often joined with...
Insterestingly, however, when I compare the number or Google search results (including the inverted commas) for "is often joined" and "often is joined", the latter appears to be far more frequent. How come? Is it because of different emphasis?
Now, in a text I've been asked to check a similar case occurs in a compound sentence, with the subject elided in the second part after the conjunction and::
[the subject] is separated from [...], and often is joined with [...]
Is that really incorrect? My first instinct would be to revert the order of 'often' and 'is', but I'm really perplexed by the enormously high numbers of counterexamples.
Many thanks for your comments!
P.
I'm familiar with the rule that says that frequency adverbs such as 'often' should come after the verb 'to be' in present simple passive clauses such as the following:
...is often joined with...
Insterestingly, however, when I compare the number or Google search results (including the inverted commas) for "is often joined" and "often is joined", the latter appears to be far more frequent. How come? Is it because of different emphasis?
Now, in a text I've been asked to check a similar case occurs in a compound sentence, with the subject elided in the second part after the conjunction and::
[the subject] is separated from [...], and often is joined with [...]
Is that really incorrect? My first instinct would be to revert the order of 'often' and 'is', but I'm really perplexed by the enormously high numbers of counterexamples.
Many thanks for your comments!
P.
Top answer
petusek My first instinct would be to revert the order of 'often' and 'is', but I'm really perplexed by the enormously high numbers of counterexamples. General Google web search is a very inauspicious tool for research on natural English. Use a proper Corpus compendium or Google books.
- petusek My first instinct would be to revert the order of 'often' and 'is', but I'm really perplexed by the enormously high numbers of counterexamples.
- General Google web search is a very inauspicious tool for research on natural English.
- Use a proper Corpus compendium or Google books.
- edu /
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5 Answers
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petusekMy first instinct would be to revert the order of 'often' and 'is', but I'm really perplexed by the enormously high numbers of counterexamples.General Google web search is a very inauspicious tool for research on natural English.
Use a proper Corpus compendium or Google books.
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See the comparison of 'is often' and 'often is' at
https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=is+often%2Coften+is&year_start=1800&year_end=2000&corpus=15&
https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=is+often%2Coften+is&year_start=1800&year_end=2000&corpus=15&
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If you look historically, there are almost no occurrences of "often is joined" between 1860 and 1900. (And absolutely zero earlier than that.)
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Thank you very much, indeed! Also for showing me how to use the corpus interface. Finding so many counterexamples by means of the far too primitive Google search, in spite of being aware of its limitations and the virtual impossibility to separate texts by native speakers from those by non-native speakers), I was beginning to question and doubt yet another rule I had learnt and been using for year
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Thank you so much, AlpheccaStars. This is, and will be, incredibly helpful, indeed! P.
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