How to use NOT ONLY....BUT ALSO in English. An advanced English grammar lesson to show surprise when talking about two things. We use "inversion" to really emphasise the phrase everything is explained in this lesson by LetThemTalkTV
Intermediate and advanced English lessons with subtitles on our youtube channel. Brought to you by LetThemTalk language school in Paris.
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TRANSCRIPT
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If you learn this not only will you have excellent grammar but you'll look cool too.
This is Leonardo da vinci who was not only a great painter but an inventor too. This is Eddie Eagen who not only won a gold medal at the summer Olympics for boxing but at the winter Olympics too for Bobsleigh. The only person to have don that.
Hello and welcome to LetThemTalk and what I want to talk to you about today is how to use "not only......but also" in English. So you probably guessed already by my examples but we use "not only" to show a surprise with two things. List to this example.
She speaks seven languages and she plays the ukulele too.
Ok big deal. Now listen to this sentence again using not only.
Not only CAN SHE speak seven languages but she plays the ukulele too.
Wow! Do you see the difference and did you see what I did with the grammar here?
If you want to really emphasise it then you start the phrase with "not only" and here you use what we call in English grammar INVERSION.
So with inversion the auxiliary verb is switched so that it goes before the subject and if there is no auxiliary then you use the verb to do just like in a question except that it's not a question.
So if you know how to make a question in English then you know how to use inversion too. Easy. Ok let's just have a look at some more examples.
NOT ONLY DOES SHE write novels but she also writes poetry.
NOT ONLY WAS HE late but he was also rude.
NOT ONLY DID THEY drink all the beer but the ate all the doughnuts too.
NOT ONLY IS HE the pope but he's a woman too
OK the last one's not true but you see how to use it now.
So there you are. Thank you for watching and if you have any examples of using NOT ONLY yourself then put them in the comments. See you next time.
