Transformations & Special Constructions: A Practical Overview
Quick Summaries
| Construction | One-line Definition | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Negation | Reverses meaning with not, no, etc. | “The deployment did not fail.” |
| Question Formation | Rearranges clauses to request info. | “Did the deployment finish?” |
| Inversion | Flips auxiliary & subject for emphasis. | “Rarely have tests run faster.” |
| Cleft Sentences | Splits clause to highlight focus. | “It was latency that hurt UX.” |
| Existential There | Uses there is/are to present info. | “There are bugs in v2.” |
| Ellipsis | Omits repeated material. | “CI passed, and staging (did) too.” |
| Substitution | Replaces text with pro-form (do, so). | “We predicted downtime, and it seems so.” |
When to Choose Each Construction
| Goal | Prefer | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Deny or reverse statements | Negation | Keeps wording minimal. |
| Request data or confirmation | Question | Engages reader directly. |
| Spotlight surprising info | Inversion | Front-loads rarity or extent. |
| Emphasise one clause element | Cleft | Clarifies focus without bolding. |
| Introduce new entities | Existential There | Smooth topic flow. |
| Avoid repetition | Ellipsis | Tightens prose. |
| Shorten follow-ups | Substitution | Maintains rhythm, reduces clutter. |
Converting Affirmative → Negative
- Locate auxiliary (be, have, modal); add not after it.
- If none, insert do/does/did.
- Keep main verb in base form if do-support used.
Affirmative: “Servers log events.”
Negative: “Servers do not log events.”
Converting Statement → Question
- Move the first auxiliary before the subject.
- If none, add do/does/did up front.
- Capitalise and end with “?”.
Statement: “The patch fixed latency.”
Question: “Did the patch fix latency?”