1

In this clip of the movie Moana, Maui says:

I know, not every day you get a chance to meet your hero.

The line starts at 49 seconds into the video.

I think the meaning of the boldfaced clause is as follows:

You don't get a chance to meet your hero every day.

Then, shouldn't there be a subject-auxiliary inversion as follows?

Not every day do you get a chance to meet your hero.

And I thought that the subject-auxiliary inversion was mandatory when a negative adverbial phrase (e.g., not every day) was fronted.

So, how come Maui didn't say "do" right after "not every day"?

Also, if this was in writing, would the original sentence be grammatical?

EDIT

In response to the suggestion that the question might be a duplicate, I wonder if all of the following auxiliary-inversions are natural and idiomatic in spoken English:

Never you get a chance to meet your hero.

Not only you get a chance to meet your hero, but you get a chance to hang out with them.

Rarely you get a chance to meet your hero.

Seldom in your life you get a chance to meet your hero.

Only if you're a true dedicated fan you get a chance to meet your hero.

Not too many times you get a chance to meet your hero.

Improve this question
  • 5
    This is conversational deletion from an underlying "It's not every day that ....", so this question may be a duplicate of Delete the phrase "I'm" from the sentence by native speaker – StoneyB on hiatus Jan 29 '17 at 16:31
  • Perhaps, it's similar (conversational deletion) to : 'hope you get better. (from: I hope you get better). Is that right mr @StoneyB? – Klikdesainweb Jan 29 '17 at 16:48
  • 1
    @HermanNz Exactly. – StoneyB on hiatus Jan 29 '17 at 16:49
  • @StoneyB I've edited the question to respond to your claim that this is a duplicate. If you believe that all the added examples are natural in spoken English, please let me know. – JK2 Jan 29 '17 at 17:00
2

The original sentence is an instance of conversational deletion, with It's deleted:

It's not every day you get a chance to meet your hero.

But the deletion is 'licensed' because "It's not every day (that) [declarative clause]" is a common colloquial construction. Your six sentences would be legitimate instances of conversationally deleting it's ONLY TO THE EXTENT THAT the underlying It's cleft sentences are actually the sort of thing that would occur in conversation.

  • It's never and It's rarely and It's seldom you get a chance to meet your hero are not conversational utterances. We'd say You never/rarely/seldom get a chance .... in your life is a silly literary flourish—when else would you meet your hero?.

  • It's not only you get a chance to meet your hero, but you get a chance to hang out with them might be acceptable as part of a pitch to someone to attend an event; but we'd probably omit you get: "It's not only a chance to ... but a chance to..."

  • It's only if you're a true dedicated fan you get a chance to meet your hero is OK; but with that very heavy conditional I think almost everybody would restore the that before you.

  • It's not too many times you get a chance to meet your hero *is marginal; I think most of us would say "It's not that often ...".

As the name suggests, conversational deletion should be used only in actual conversations or representations of conversations, where the principle is that anything which should be understood may be omitted.

Improve this answer
  • Thanks. So, none of the seven sentences (the original and the additional six) would work if they were in writing, would they? – JK2 Jan 30 '17 at 2:08
  • That's right. Movie dialogue is not very useful for learning the canons of formal writing. – StoneyB on hiatus Jan 30 '17 at 9:40

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and cookie policy

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.