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Not since?

Posted by R. Berg on June 07, 2003

In Reply to: Not since? posted by sphinx on June 07, 2003

: Now Could you tell me, what does this sentence mean and how to rewrite this inversion sentence in its normal sentence pattern?

: "Not since World War Two have so many Americans spoken a foreign language at home."

: I think it means "Never have so many Americans spoken a foreign language at home since World War Two."

: but when I rewrite it using inversion grammar knowledge, I find it be "Since World War Two have not so many Americans spoken a foreign language at home.", which has the opposite meaning!

To undo the inversion, you would write "So many Americans have not spoken a foreign language at home since World War II." The original (inverted) sentence, "Not since . . . ," is clearer, however.

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