‘ As soon as ‘ and ‘ No sooner than ‘

‘  As soon as ‘  and  ‘ No sooner than ‘

These two structures are used to talk about something that happens immediately after something else.  When ‘ No sooner ‘ comes at the beginning of a sentence, we use inverted word order.  That means the auxiliary verb comes before the subject. ( Example : No sooner had I received her call , than I left for her place . We do not say, ” No sooner I had received her call…) The structure ‘ No sooner than ‘ is quite literary.  ‘ No sooner’ clause is rarely used and that too only in writing.  It is always better to use the ‘ As soon as ‘ clause both in speaking and writing.

  • No sooner had I eaten the fish, than I started feeling sick. (OR) As soon as I ate the fish, I started feeling sick.( i.e   I started feeling sick immediately after I ate the fish)
  • No sooner had they completed the work, than they demanded the wages. (OR) As soon as they completed the work, they demanded wages.  ( i.e They demanded wages soon after they completed the work.
  • As soon as we started our programme, it began to rain. (OR)  No sooner had we started our programme, than it began to rain.
  • As soon as the teacher came in, all the students stood up. (OR) No sooner had the teacher come in, than all the students stood up.
  • As soon as the bus came, we all rushed to it. (OR)  No sooner had the bus come, than we all rushed to it.
  • No sooner had we got the message, than we went out. (OR) As soon as we got the message, we went out.

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