No sooner...

[Sunflower.baby]

Hi all,

Please help me out with the following sentence transformation problem...

1. We had hardly sat down at the table when the phone rang.
==> No sooner...?????? I have no clue to do this... Please advice me the grammar point as well...

2. "Why don't you complain to the company, Peter?", said William.
==> I think: William suggested that Peter should complain to the company.

Thank you for your time.

[Morteza]

Hi,
No sooner had we sat down at the table than the phone rang.(Immediately after/when)
William suggested that Peter complain to ... .(In SUBJUNCTIVE the bare infinitive or should+bare infinitve is used)
Regards,
Morteza

[Hieupt]

Thanks for your answers, Morteza.

Actually I think it's correct to use "should" in the 2nd sentence. Otherwise, the tense of the transformed sentences should be shifted back, like "complaint". How do you think?
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Thank you very much,
Hieu Phan.

P/s: Please just correct if I'm wrong somewhere!

[Esl_Expert]

I agree with Morteza.

In sentence 1 it is also good to remember that beginning a sentence with "No sooner" will result in the inversion of the subject and verb -- exactly as Morteza has written it.

In sentence 2 either "complain" (subjunctive) or "should complain" can be used. (Morteza has already posted this as well.) Both are grammatically correct. I would say that the subjunctive would be the more likely choice in American English. I'm not sure about British English, but I think the Brits may be abandoning the use of the subjunctive a little faster than Americans are.

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"The sensitivity of men to small matters, and their indifference to great ones, indicates a strange inversion." ~ Blaise Pascal