Which sentence has the same meaning as the first?

"No sooner than" is used when something happens immediately. The 'had arrived' or 'did arrive' forms are equally acceptable. I have seen some ESL resources which say that these sentences are equivalent, using the same words as your example:

That usage example is shown here:

http://www.englishpractice.com/learning/soonerthan/

The example is misleading because 'soon' does not necessarily mean 'immediately'.

Thanks, contrex.

Could you please elaborate on the misleading part? I am surprised that "No sooner did..." and "No sooner had..." versions have the same meaning.

The teacher entered the classroom. Suddenly the students stood up.
The above sentence seems illogical to me because of the word "Suddenly" used in relation to the teacher entering the classroom.

The misleading part is the use of 'soon' in the first sentence. 'Soon' has a indefinite meaning of 'not a long time later' but used alone it does not mean "immediately". Even 'very soon' does not convey immediacy. If the train was going to wait for an hour in the station, 'soon after' the train arrived could mean five minutes after. 'Soon after you plant some seeds, shoots will appear.' could be used when the delay is days or weeks. Thus the sentence is a poor candidate for illustrating the meaning of 'no sooner than' which is used when something happens immediately after something else, with no delay whatsoever.


You can use either 'no sooner did' followed by the base form of the verb (e.g. 'arrive'), or 'no sooner had' followed by the past participle (e.g. 'arrived'). In each case you are linking a past action or event (e.g. the train's arrival) with one that immediately followed it (e.g. the people rushing).

No sooner did I open I my eyes than I saw a pretty nurse.

No sooner had I opened I my eyes than I saw a pretty nurse.


Yes, this is completely wrong. 'Immediately' or 'at once' would be correct. The author of that web site clearly does not have a good understanding of English.

Thanks, contrex, for your great effort in helping me.

Wow Tang I gotta agree, great effort. Rex certainly deserves some sort of applause

But for some reason the pause at B seem a trifle longer
Dunno why

Oops, edited to note he had said something to the same effect