Emphasis & advanced · CEFR C2 · Mastery

Leaving words out — English emphasis and inversion

English leaves out anything already recoverable from the sentence before. Repeating it in full sounds laboured rather than careful.

The shape

I can, and she can too → I can, and so can she

Stop repeating what your listener already has.

In Hindi

अंग्रेज़ी वह सब छोड़ देती है जो पिछले वाक्य से समझा जा सके।

CoCap explains every structure in both languages, because a rule you understand in Hindi is a rule you can use in English.

The mistake to fix first

The sentence Indian-English speakers actually produce, and the reason it is wrong.

Commonly said	Correct English
She said she would come, and she came, and I also came.	She said she would come, and she did, and so did I. The repeated verbs can be replaced by "did" and "so did I".

Commonly said

Correct English

She said she would come, and she came, and I also came.

She said she would come, and she did, and so did I.

The repeated verbs can be replaced by "did" and "so did I".

Easy to confuse with

Close enough to be mixed up with this one. Knowing the difference is most of knowing either.

do so, one, so, notC2Replace a whole phrase with one word

Questions people ask

What is the leaving words out used for?: English leaves out anything already recoverable from the sentence before. Repeating it in full sounds laboured rather than careful. In practice: stop repeating what your listener already has.
How do you form the leaving words out?: I can, and she can too → I can, and so can she.
What is the most common mistake with the leaving words out?: Saying “She said she would come, and she came, and I also came.” instead of “She said she would come, and she did, and so did I.”. The repeated verbs can be replaced by "did" and "so did I".

Where leaving words out fits

Where this structure sits in the ladder, and what surrounds it.

Leaving words out is a CEFR C2 structure — the mastery band — and it belongs to emphasis & advanced. CoCap’s syllabus files every structure this way so you can learn in order instead of jumping between whatever a search happened to return.

Reading it is not the same as saying it.

CoCap turns this page into practice: Hindi sentence in, English sentence out, corrected one thing at a time. Free, no card.

Practise the leaving words out →

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