34
votes
"How many psychologists does it take to change a light bulb?"
Both of these are perfectly correct. You could also say "How many psychologists are necessary to change a light bulb?" or "How many psychologists are required to change a light bulb?"
However, as ...
- 486
22
votes
Accepted
Why does the sentence uses a question form, but it is put a period in the end?
This is an inversion, but not a question.
In formal English, with a negative adverb like "nowhere" or restrictive like "only" in initial position, the auxiliary verb inverts with ...
- 231k
13
votes
"How long have you been working?" vs. "How long you have been working?"
How long have you been working?
*How long you have been working?
The former is grammatical; it's a direct or normal question.
The latter has not been formed properly. If you omit the question ...
- 27.3k
13
votes
"How many psychologists does it take to change a light bulb?"
"It takes x to y" is extremely common, and I'm surprised that you haven't met it before. It is certainly not confined to light-bulb jokes! It means "x is necessary in order to y." Here are some ...
- 1,436
10
votes
Accepted
Why does "would" come up here?
The structure is:
"only" + [adverbial] + [verb with tense] + [subject] + [the rest].
The adverbial is "when that unit is complete", "would" is the verb with tense, and ...
- 51.1k
9
votes
"How many psychologists does it take to change a light bulb?"
Yes, because "take" can mean "require."
If three psychologists are standing in line, it's like taking one out of the line to change the light bulb. "It" standing for the task.
It's informal, but it ...
- 127
9
votes
Why does "would" come up here?
I have upvoted the existing, excellent answer, but just to add:
Other than in questions, most subject/verb inversion is rare in informal use.
Another notable trigger for subject-verb inversion is the ...
- 23.2k
9
votes
Accepted
Expressions with "and boy was I....." Idiomatic expression?
When you form a question, you invert the subject and auxiliary verb:
Is it a cat?
For rhetorical purposes you sometimes phrase a statement as a question. The purpose of these rhetorical questions is ...
- 231k
8
votes
Accepted
"Why do you not give" Vs "Why do not you give"
This is a very simple example of subject–auxiliary inversion, and it is required in most interrogative sentences in English. The subject and the auxiliary verb appear in the reverse of the order in ...
8
votes
"How many psychologists does it take to change a light bulb?"
You appear to have misidentified the subject of the sentence. In questions, word order is often inverted.
The subject of the sentence is the word "it," not "many" or "psychologists." The verb must ...
- 454
7
votes
"How long have you been working?" vs. "How long you have been working?"
They are not both questions.
"Have you" is part of a question:
Have you been working? How long?
"You have" is part of a statement:
You have been working. I know how long.
In a question ...
- 742
7
votes
Why does the sentence uses a question form, but it is put a period in the end?
Nowhere, however, do they have more fun than in the Mexican town of Puebla.
Compare that to:
They don't have more fun anywhere than in the Mexican town of Puebla.
That sentence is not a question. If ...
- 49k
6
votes
Accepted
the use of subject-verb inversion
This sentence is written in an older style and was very hard for me to parse because there are many confusing elements. Here they are:
yes, "for" here means "because"
"had ...
- 51.1k
5
votes
Only now "are" technological advances beginning to offer hope
This is a noun phrase, merely a sentence fragment:
Technological advances beginning to offer hope...
To make it a valid sentence we need a finite (tensed) verb:
Technological advances are ...
- 137k
5
votes
Accepted
"Will patrons kindly note that this restaurant will be closed on 17 July." — Why is it possible to use inversion here without a question mark?
Question syntax is used to make certain requests more tentative, and hence more polite. There is a bit of a grey area, some requests might be questions:
Will you (or "won't you") have a ...
- 231k
4
votes
Accepted
Only now "are" technological advances beginning to offer hope
The verb BE is necessary here because the clause uses a present continuous construction.
She is talking
Technological advances are beginning ...
In the second example we see the verb are agreeing ...
4
votes
Accepted
Inversion in this sentence: "Nothing can/could I do..."
It is possible and understandable. However I would only expect to see this form in poetry. It certainly is not used in ordinary conversation.
In everyday modern English we would say:
There was ...
- 12.5k
4
votes
Accepted
Never did I see her again
The 'natural' way to say it is "I never saw her again". Putting never at the beginning is a literary/formal way to emphasise the word. The difference between (a) and (b) is a matter of ...
- 61.4k
4
votes
Accepted
What is it called when a grammatical statement is delivered as a question?
If the statement wasn't intended as question but the intonation was similar to one, that's uptalk, which is a feature used by some speakers of some dialects (or idiolects). According to Wikipedia:
...
- 15.9k
3
votes
Accepted
How many months does it has to take to build a cruise.(grammar)
There is only ever one tensed verb in a verb phrase (ignoring coordinations like "goes and eats"). If there is no auxiliary, then the main verb of the sentence is tensed. If there is an auxiliary, ...
- 77.1k
3
votes
Accepted
Oscar Wilde's story telling technique
Inverting the subject and verb is not unusual in poetry. It is usually just called "inversion," but its technical name is "anastrophe."
Sometimes it is prompted by considerations of scansion, but ...
- 186
3
votes
Accepted
The role of do in a declarative sentence
When a negative adverbial phrase is placed at the beginning of the clause it modifies, the modified clause is 'marked' just like a question with subject/auxiliary inversion and do support.
I have ...
- 176k
3
votes
Which question is right?
"aware" is an adjective.
It's always useful to try to trace back to your original sentence, because questions are like normal sentences with gaps to fill in.
I am aware of the procedure.
The ...
- 7,361
3
votes
Accepted
not every day (do) you get a chance to
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 ...
- 176k
3
votes
Accepted
When to use "he/she had" and when to use "had he/she" when formulating a question?
"Or had she inherited it from her parents?" is grammatically correct. "She had ... [done something] ?" is not acceptable in a normal question, even informally.
- 11.6k
3
votes
Accepted
Difference between 'I don't know how can I' and 'I don't know how I can'?
"I don't know how I can do this" is correct.
The emboldened expression is a subordinate interrogative clause: it is a clause that's embedded in the main clause and serves as a complement of the verb ...
- 8,884
3
votes
Which question tag is correct: “do / don't / have / haven't they?”
OP's alternatives #2 and #4 are completely unacceptable in the cited context. The basic rule is that "tag" questions always negate the preceding "assertion", but in this case, the ...
- 74.6k
3
votes
"Is monarchy relevant in the modern world or should it be abolished?"— Is it correct not to invert the word order and say "or it should be abolished"?
This sentence has an afterthought, and that it is non-integral to the main clause can be indicated with the em-dash:
Is monarchy relevant in the modern world — or should it be abolished?
It could ...
- 137k
3
votes
Is it natural to say "could he" instead of "if he could"? E.g.: "Could he have cast himself in the part of Mr Copthorne, he would not have attempted…"
Conditional constructions (1) and (2) are antiquated, and are best avoided in speech and writing.
On the other hand, I believe (3) is possible, even though the form is very dated and may not be easily ...
- 28.9k
3
votes
"being" and "were I tempted"
Here, being is used in pretty much the same way as in “Austen’s mastery of the language is remarkable, Pride and Prejudice being a great example,” we have two thoughts grafted together. A paraphrase ...
- 11.3k
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