ELLIPSIS AND SUBSTITUTION

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ELLIPSIS AND SUBSTITUTION

Sometimes it is possible to drop nouns after adjectives, noun modifiers and/or determiners:- "Do you want small or medium menu?" - "I want the small" (=small menu)- "Which shoes are you going to wear?" - "These" (=These shoes)

ELLIPSIS

Repeated words, subject or subject + auxiliary verb are often dropped in coordinate structures.- A knife and fork (= a knife and a fork)You CANNOT leave out the subject pronoun after "before", "after", "because", "when" and "while":- They locked the door before they left.

AFTER "BUT", "AND" and "or"

AT THE END OF A NOUN PHRASE

We can use "to" instead of repeating a whole infinitive. - "Are you giving your boyfriend a surprise birthday party?" - "I hope to"Sometimes, we can leave out the whole infinitive, including "to":- Come when you want. (= when you want to come)

infinitives

We try to avoid repeating information that has just been given.- "What time are you arriving?" - "About ten"

REPLIES

Auxiliaries are often used alone instead of full verbs. - "I haven't paid" - "I haven't either" (=I haven't paid either)- "I am bored" - "I am, too"- "Who's the driver?" - "I am" (= I am the driver)This type of ellipsis can include words that follow the verb phrase.- "I was planning to go to Moscow next week, but I can't "(=I can't go to Moscow next week)You can use a different auxiliary or modal verb from that used in the first part of the sentence:- I thought I would be able to go to the party tomorrow, but in fact I can't.- I know you've never learned to swim, but I really think you should have.

ELLIPSIS

In INFORMAL SPEECH, unstressed words are often dropped at the beginning of a sentence, if the sentence is clear.- "Seen Lucy?" (=Have you seen Lucy?)

at the beginning of a sentence

We can leave out words after "as" and "than" IF the meaning is clear:- The weather isn't as good as last year (=...as good as it was last year)- I found more blackberries than you (=...than you found)

comparative structures with "as" and "than"

REPEATED verb phrase OR ADJECTIVE AFTER THE SAME AUXILIARY

FOR clauseS

FOR VERBS

substitution

We can use "do so" (or "does so", "did so", "doing so", etc.) to avoid repeating a verb phrase:- If I can help, I'll be happy to do so" (= to help)You can also use "do it/do that" instead (MORE INFORMAL):- They told me to be quiet and I did it.

do so

Use "so" after certain verbs of thinking and speaking to avoid repeating a positive clause. The commonest use is with the verbs "assume, believe, expect, guess, hope, imagine, presume, suppose, say, tell sb, think, be afraid" and "it seems/appears":- "Are they coming?" - "I think so"If we want to avoid repeating a negative clause, we can use a positive verb + not or a negative verb + so:- "Did they leave a copy of the key?" - It doesn't seem so / It seems not"We can use so and neither + auxiliary + subject to avoid repeating a clause:- "I shouldn't take the offer, and neither should you (= and you shouldn't take the offer either)

so / not / neither

We can use one to avoid repeating a singular countable noun, and ones to avoid repeating a plural noun.- "Do you need a pencil?" - "No, I've already got one"

ONE / ONES

FOR NOUNS