Scribd
Upload
73 views2 pages

INVERSION

We use inversion in certain cases beyond questions, including: 1) When using a negative adverb or phrase at the beginning of a sentence to emphasize what is being said in a surprising, striking, or unusual way. 2) Instead of "if" in formal conditionals with "had", "were", and "should". 3) When putting an adverbial expression of place at the beginning of a sentence, making it more formal or literary. 4) After "so + adjective...that" to emphasize the adjective. Inversion is optional in these cases.

Uploaded by

Carmen
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
73 views2 pages

INVERSION

We use inversion in certain cases beyond questions, including: 1) When using a negative adverb or phrase at the beginning of a sentence to emphasize what is being said in a surprising, striking, or unusual way. 2) Instead of "if" in formal conditionals with "had", "were", and "should". 3) When putting an adverbial expression of place at the beginning of a sentence, making it more formal or literary. 4) After "so + adjective...that" to emphasize the adjective. Inversion is optional in these cases.

Uploaded by

Carmen
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 2

INVERSION

When do we use inversion? Of course, we use inversion in questions. But we also


sometimes use inversion in other cases, when we are not making a question.

1. When we use a negative adverb or adverb phrase at the beginning of the sentence.

Usually, we put the expression at the beginning of the sentence to emphasise what we're
saying. It makes our sentence sound surprising or striking or unusual. It also sounds quite
formal. If you don't want to give this impression, you can put the negative expression later in
the sentence in the normal way:

 Seldom have I seen such beautiful work.


('Seldom' is at the beginning, so we use inversion. This sentence emphasizes what
beautiful work it is.
 I have seldom seen such beautiful work.
('Seldom' is in the normal place, so we don't use inversion. This is a normal sentence
with no special emphasis.)

Here are some negative adverbs and adverb phrases that we often use with
inversion:

Hardly Hardly had I got into bed when the telephone rang.

Never Never had she seen such a beautiful sight before.

Seldom Seldom do we see such an amazing display of dance.

Rarely Rarely will you hear such beautiful music.

Only then Only then did I understand why the tragedy had happened.

Not only ... but Not only does he love chocolate and sweets but he also smokes.

No sooner No sooner had we arrived home than the police rang the doorbell.

Scarcely Scarcely had I got off the bus when it crashed into the back of a car.

Only later Only later did she really think about the situation.

Nowhere Nowhere have I ever had such bad service.

Little Little did he know!

Only in this way Only in this way could John earn enough money to survive.

In no way In no way do I agree with what you're saying.

On no account On no account should you do anything without asking me first.


2. We can use inversion instead of 'if' in conditionals with 'had' 'were' and 'should'.
This is quite formal:

 Normal conditional: If I had been there, this problem wouldn't have happened.
 Conditional with inversion: Had I been there, this problem wouldn't have happened.
 Normal conditional: If we had arrived sooner, we could have prevented this tragedy!
 Conditional with inversion: Had we arrived sooner, we could have prevented this
tragedy!

3. We can use inversion if we put an adverbial expression of place at the beginning on


the sentence. This is also quite formal or literary:

 On the table was all the money we had lost. (Normal sentence: All the money we
had lost was on the table.)
 Round the corner came the knights. (Normal sentence: The knights came round the
corner.)

4. We can use inversion after 'so + adjective...that':

 So beautiful was the girl that nobody could talk of anything else. (Normal sentence:
the girl was so beautiful that nobody could talk of anything else.)
 So delicious was the food that we ate every last bite. (Normal sentence: the food
was so delicious that we ate every last bite.)

You might also like