Page 237 - Practical English Usage 3ed - Michael Swan, Oxford

233 hardly, scarcely and no sooner
These three expressions can be used (often with a past perfect tense - see 423) to suggest that one thing happened very soon after another. Note the sentence structure:
· .. hardly . .. when/before .. . · .. scarcely ... when/before .. . · .. no sooner ... than ...
I had hardly/scarcely closed my eyes when the phone rang.
She was hardly/scarcely inside the house before the kids started screaming. I had no sooner closed the door than somebody knocked.
We no sooner sat down in the train than I felt sick.
In a formal or literary style, inverted word order is possible (see 302). Hardly had I closed my eyes when I began to imagine fantastic shapes. No sooner had she agreed to marry him than she started to have doubts.
234 have (1): introduction Have is used in several different ways:
a as an auxiliary verb, to make perfect verb forms
Have you heard about Peter and Corinne?
I remembered his face, but I had forgotten his name.
b to talk about posseSSion, relationships and other states
They have three cars.
Have you got any brothers or sisters? Do you often have headaches?
c to talk about actions and experiences
I'm going to have a bath.
We're having a party next weekend.
d with an infinitive, to talk about obligation (like must) I had to work last Saturday.
e with object + verb form, to talk about causing or experiencing actions and events
He soon had everybody laughing. I must have my shoes repaired. We had our car stolen last week.
For details of the different structures and meanings, see the following sections.
For contractions (I've, haven't etc), see 143. For weak fomls. see 616.
For had better + infinitive, see 230.
have (1): introduction 234
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