no sooner had..than (BBC Learning English)

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這是我們國中學過的，看看這位教授怎麼解釋，順便複習一下吧。

有人問這位Swan教授要如何將一句no sooner had...than 寫成的句子拆成兩半，以好理解。

Swan教授表示要先知道什麼動作先發生，什麼動作後發生，這樣的句子極少在對話中出現，有可能讀到或寫出這樣的句子，例如他舉的例子:No sooner had I arrived at the station than the train came in，跟別人說話時就會是：The train came in just after I got to the station，或是：I had only just got to the station when the train came in ，諸如此類。

當我們在『背』這一類的句型時，一定也會看到這兩個字『Hardly』和『scarcely 』，Swan教授也提到了，這兩個和第一個是差不多用法，只是than變成了when，如：Hardly had I arrived at the station when the train came in”，或Scarcely had I arrived at the station when the train came in。因為sooner是比較級，所以用than。