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I'm having trouble trying to do these exercises of sentence transformation, where you have to fill in the blanks with 3-6 words, including the one in brackets, so that the new sentence has the same meaning as a similar meaning to the original one. This is the first.

They left as soon as I entered the room. (had)
No _____________________ the room than they left.

Before knowing the answer, I thought it was something like No [sth] I had entered the room than they left, but I couldn't guess what [sth] could be and I didn't notice the inversion.
Here is the second.

He told her because he believed it was true. (belief)
He told her ______________________ true.

I don't understand why they removed because, maybe I shouldn't write it... But they left true... And I think the solution doesn't contain the fragment his belief was true, since the thing that is true is the it of the first sentence. But I may be wrong...

Edit. This is not homework! Answering this question will mean neither relieving me of my duty nor making me able to do all the exercises of this kind. It'll just teach me two expressions that might come in handy one day (and maybe some useful tips too ;).

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    I'm pretty sure the first one is No sooner had they entered the room... I'm at a loss for the second one, though; the best I can muster is He told her his belief, that it was true, but I'm afraid that's rather clunky.
    – J.R. ♦
    Commented May 11, 2016 at 13:22
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    He told her because of his belief that it was true. He told her since it was his belief that it was true. He told her since his belief was that it was true. He told her as his belief was that it was true. (These are in the order I wrote them as my ideas evolved. I think the last one, with the "as", is the best.)
    – AdrianHHH
    Commented May 11, 2016 at 14:30
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    "He told her what he believed was true", "He told her since his belief was true.
    – Peter
    Commented May 11, 2016 at 15:25
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    I can write as many words as I choose. You might desire that the answer should be 3-6 words, but that does not stop me from writing as many words as I like. I will leave condensing my suggested words to 6 or less to you. If I had seen a 6 word variation I would have written it as an answer.
    – AdrianHHH
    Commented May 11, 2016 at 15:26
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    He told her in the belief that it was true. But this is just an Off-Topic guessing game - I don't endorse this meta question.
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented May 20, 2016 at 18:49

1 Answer 1

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The first, as noted in the comments is:

  • No sooner had I entered the room than they left.

Notice that we need to put the Subject after the auxiliary verb here. This is because there is a negative word in the Adjunct at the beginning of the sentence.

I think the second probably is:

  • He told her in the belief (that) it was true.

This doesn't really say that he told her because he believed it was true. But these questions are often not very well designed.

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  • Shouldn't the second probably is be the second is probably? Correct me if I'm wrong :)
    – Human
    Commented May 24, 2016 at 19:48
  • @Human Thanks! They're both good, actually. My version is "marked" which means it is in an unusual position to give a specific effect. In this case it is meant to emphasise that I am not sure. The more usual position is indeed after the auxiliary verb (well spotted!).
    – Araucaria - Not here any more.
    Commented May 24, 2016 at 19:57
  • Ok. Good to know :)
    – Human
    Commented May 24, 2016 at 20:00
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    I've suggested an edit: no sooner had they should be no sooner had I ("as noted in the comments") and he told her because it was true should be he told her because he believed it was true. But it has just been rejected. Could you please correct it yourself?
    – Human
    Commented May 24, 2016 at 20:09
  • @Human Oops, good edit. Do it again while I waiting and I'll accept it.It will go through and you'll get the rep you deserve! Let me know when you've done it!
    – Araucaria - Not here any more.
    Commented May 24, 2016 at 20:24

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