soon

Soon the sun will rise above the city bringing it's warmth to the streets, though nothing can done for the coldness of it's inhabitant's hearts.

Soon
Thanks Joe for the literary utterance, but this does not solve my grammatical problem. Moreover, you should add "be" before "done" in your sentence. Just kidding!

You're right about the 'be' .

Any sentence starting with soon is going to sound literary, it's usage is more poetic than utilitarian.

What problem are you having?

J

soon
Wow, Joe !!!
Now, after all this you ask what my problem is? I guess I started this post by introducing the main question. That is the first one above: When is the word "soon" used to begin a "contrast clause". I do know the usage of "Although" and "While" in this regard, but, as I read in a grammar book, "soon" has a similar application, too. The problem is: How is it used in such a sentence?

Hello, khorrami in Iran. This is not an easy question. I will have to think about it.

Do you mean something like:

"The world is dark now; soon, however, with the sunrise it will be light"?

By the way, I don't agree that "soon" belongs in a list with "although" and "while". Its usage is different, in my opinion.

What kind of a grammar book was that?

Khorrami- A contrastive clause just means a clause or phrase, not a complete sentence, that highlights a contrast with another clause (or phrase) within a complete sentence which illustrates a difference of some sort.
As in:
Soon, I will be going home, although it will not be the same as I remembered it.
So: Soon, I will be going home is the contrastive clause with soon used at the beginning, and although it will not be the same as I remembered it. is the clause with which you are making the contrast.

If this seems wrong, (as it very well could be - it's just my own understanding of your question) I'd ask Shapeless for a definitive answer. S/he's got an incredible grasp of grammar. There's also a woman on this forum named Roberta who is an editor. Either of those two should be able to explain it to you, correctly maybe in more detail.

JTT, he's my man. I'll back him against your champion any day. :wink:

I don't know who JTT is - no offence, I'm just not aware of that poster. But I don't think anyone could beat Shapeless in terms of grammar - not from what I've seen anyway. Maybe they should have a "parse-off" or something.

Khorrami - I was just thinking. A clause can be either dependent (not a complete sentence, in which case you'd follow it with a comma) or independent (could stand on it's own as a sentence, but can also be included in a complete sentence, in which case it'd be followed by a semi-colon).

The example I gave you is an independent clause: Soon, I will be going home followed by another independent clause but home will not be the same as I remembered it.

I should have separated those two clauses with a semi-colon instead of a comma: Soon I will be going home; but home will not be the same as I remembered it.

Edited because I think I thought of a clearer example of your initial question below:

Soon it will become obvious that James is stronger, though Peter is bigger.

Is that any clearer? Two clauses that illustrate a contrast, the first beginning with the word soon.

If I'm wrong - someboday bail me out. Thanks.

I agree with McTag that "soon" shouldn't be on the list. In the examples given "soon" is simply used as an adverb and could easily be replaced by "tomorrow" or "in twenty minutes" which certainly wouldn't be on the list.

That's true. Could soon just have been one in a list of words dealing with time? Because you're right - you could just as easily say,

"Later I'll go to bed, but right now I'm not tired."


I don't have my old rules of composition and grammar book here, so I can't look it up quickly, but I'll see what I can find out. I'm curious myself now.

Where are the 7th Cavalry?

Come to that, where is the original poster Khorrami? I want to get this thrashed out.

Er, should that be "Where is the 7th Cavalry"?

No, actually, come to think of it, I was referring to our two or three individual experts. :wink:

Soon
Thank you very much, McTag and Aidan. You are very kind and informative. All in all, I got something, but maybe it's better for me to wait for "Shapeless" and "Roberta". But the surprising part is that this problem is unfamiliar for you as native English speakers, too, let alone me -- a non-native. So, my students in the English class would be unfair if they criticised me for not knowing the application of "soon" in this sense!!!

By the way, are these two grammarians available in this forum?

Well, I've written to JTT to see if I can raise him.

Khorrami, I would like you to re-state your question so that I can better understand it. Would you like to give that a try?

I'm hardly a grammarian, but I do have a very strong practical knowledge of the language. Also I have lots of reference books. I just finished looking through several of the best of them. I had never heard of a contrastive clause. None of the books I looked in had contrastive clause listed.

From a practical point of view, I wouldn't categorize "soon" with "while" and "although." For one thing, they're different parts of speech. In addition, "while" and "although" are parts of dependent clauses. Soon can be part of dependent or independent clauses because it functions in a different way.

You can read a book (independent clause) while I'm getting ready (dependent clause).

Although it's late (dependent clause), I'd still like to go (independent clause).

It will soon be time to leave, so let's get pack. ("Soon" has nothing to do with the clause; "although" and "while" in a sense create the clause. In this example, "so" makes the clause dependent and functions in the same way that "although" and "while" do.)

"Soon" does not fall into the same category as "while" and "although." I could see the connection possibly with the phrase "as soon as." Otherwise, no. Your book is wrong.

Someone more knowledgeable than I could probably come up with a better explanation. But I don't think this person would come up with a different answer.

Hope I helped.

Excellent, Roberta.


I took Khorrami to mean contrastive sentence, not clause.

Joe(what do I know)Nation

Thanks, Joe. Glad you think I helped.

Oops. Spotted a mistake in my answer. Too late to edit--It will soon be time to leave, so let's get pack." Should be "so let's pack." Don't want to mislead anyone.

We do type so fast!!!

Joe(Why doesn't this computer type what I mean to say.)Nation