Teacher Discussion Forums

[Forgorin]

Just a quickie,

This sentence, "These animals show their tongues more clearly than do humans."

My question is; why is 'do' before 'humans'? Shouldn't it come after? "These animals show their tongues more clearly than humans do."

Cheers,
Forgorin

[fluffyhamster]

As this fragment (from Googling " ~ ", which produces only one hit) appears to come from a grammar exercise for Japanese high school students, and the inverted (postposed?) subject isn't complex or heavy enough to warrant such positioning, I wouldn't worry too much about the whys and wherefores - just explain what the default word order should be, and that the marked word order is apparently unnecessary and perhaps therefore a little strange in this instance.

[Forgorin]

Thanks again Fluffy!