The ESL HELP! Desk

In general, an adverb is frequency is not commonly used in the beginning of a sentence. 

However, common negative adverbs of frequency such as never, rarely, and seldom, are rarely are placed at the beginning of a sentence.

Please read below.

Before you begin the activities, you may want to study the podcast and grammar lesson, He's Always Talking about Grammar , also in our Library.

Using a Negative Adverb to Begin a Sentence

 

Common negative adverbs of frequency such as never, rarely, and seldom, are rarely are placed at the beginning of a sentence.

However, there are occasions when the writer or speaker wishes to emphasis the negative frequency of an action or state of being.

In these cases, the writer can manipulate the word order to achieve this emphasis.

Main Verb Consists of One Word

 

Normal Word Order:

• I never talk with my father.
      adverb, main verb
  

Emphatic Word Order:

Use an auxiliary (helping verb) after the adverb and before the main subject.

• Never do I talk with my father.
  adv. aux. MS, MV, rest of the sentence

Main Verb Consists of  Two or More Words

When the Main Verb Consists of More Than One Word

Normal Word Order:

• I have never had good communication with my father.
  S, aux.  adverb rest of the verb, rest of the sentence

Emphatic Word Order:

• Never have I  had good communication with my father.
   adverb, aux. S, rest of the verb, rest of the sentence

Please note:  This type of emphasis and word order is not common and is used only in special cases, so use it sparingly.

Our next lesson...

 

Return to Chapter: Sentence Structure - Simple, Compound and Complex
Return to Chapter: Adverbs - Comparative and Superlative Forms