Negative and “Almost Negative” Adverbs – Building Grammar Skills

Negative and “Almost Negative” Adverbs at the Beginning of a Sentence 

In some situations, you can put an adverb of frequency at the beginning of a sentence. When this adverb is negative (such as never) or almost negative (rarely), the sentence must be in question word order.

e.g. I have never seen such a system of government 

Never have I seen such a system of government. 

It rarely snows in Toronto in January. 

Rarely does it rain in Toronto in January. 

The most common “negative” and “almost negative” adverbs are: seldom, scarcely, hardly, not until, never, nowhere, barely. 

This is not common in modern conversational English, but it occurs regularly in academic written English, 

Exercise

Paraphrase these sentences, and move the negative/almost negative adverb to the beginning of the sentence. 

1. I have never been so scared.
2. They hardly finished eating when it started to rain.
3. She never arrives on time.
4. We will seldom meet after this course finishes.
5. He barely had time to finish his work yesterday.
6. I rarely go to the gym during the week.
7. You have never handed your work in on time,
8. She seldom drinks alcohol.
9. He almost never worries about his health.
10. I have seen this nowhere.

See more Introduction to Adverbs – Building Grammar Skills for the TOEFL IBT