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Inversion

The document discusses negative inversion and cleft sentences in English grammar. Negative inversion involves placing adverbial words or phrases at the beginning of a sentence to produce a more dramatic effect, such as "Never before have I heard such a terrible lecture." Cleft sentences emphasize specific subjects or objects by using a "what" clause as the sentence subject followed by a form of "to be", like "What I need most is a good night's sleep." The document provides examples of both structures and notes that inversion should only be used occasionally for effect in writing or speaking.

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Yamila Reynoso
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59 views

Inversion

The document discusses negative inversion and cleft sentences in English grammar. Negative inversion involves placing adverbial words or phrases at the beginning of a sentence to produce a more dramatic effect, such as "Never before have I heard such a terrible lecture." Cleft sentences emphasize specific subjects or objects by using a "what" clause as the sentence subject followed by a form of "to be", like "What I need most is a good night's sleep." The document provides examples of both structures and notes that inversion should only be used occasionally for effect in writing or speaking.

Uploaded by

Yamila Reynoso
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Instituto Superior Lenguas Vivas

Profesora: Sánchez Reinaffé, Mariela

Lengua Inglesa 3

NEGATIVE INVERSION
The general rule for word order in English (subject-verb-object) can be broken by
placing certain adverbial words or phrases at the beginning of a sentence: this is
done to produce a more dramatic effect, particularly in story-telling, stating strong
opinions and the giving of rules.

“Normal” Negative inversion The result was never in doubt. At no time/Never was the
result in doubt. I have never heard such a terrible lecture. Never/Never before have I
heard such a terrible lecture. You can’t see such large forests anywhere else.
Nowhere else is it possible to see such large forests. I was not only tired, but I was
also hungry. Not only was I tired, (but) I was also hungry. Almost as soon as I got into
the house, the telephone rang. No sooner had I got into the house than the telephone
rang. The sun rose and almost immediately it began to rain. Hardly had the sun risen
when/before it began to rain. A public figure has seldom been more completely
humiliated. Seldom has a public figure been more completely humiliated.

He little realized that she had heard every word.


Little did he realize that she had heard every word.

It was such a heavy vase that he dropped it.


Such was the weight of the vase that he dropped it.

He spoke so quickly that nobody could understand.


So quickly did he speak that nobody could understand.

He must not leave the country on any account.


On no account must he leave the country.

I wouldn’t go back to the university under any circumstances.


Under no circumstances would I go back to university.
The club will only admit men under exceptional circumstances.
Only under exceptional circumstances will the club admit men.

He didn’t realise the extent of the damage until he saw it in daylight.


*Not until he saw the damage in daylight did he realize the extent of the damage.

I can only relax after I have had a drink.


*Only after I have had a drink can I relax.

*Notice that only, not until and not even introduce adverbial clauses, and the
inversion comes in the second part of the sentence.
Inversion

In formal English, and in written language in particular, we use negative adverbials at


the beginning of the sentence to make it more emphatic or dramatic.

The word order is inverted:

negative adverbial + auxiliary verb + subject + verb

Compare this example from a complaint letter:

NORMAL – I have never had such a bad experience before.

INVERSION – Never before have I had such a bad experience.

While it is an excellent idea to use inversion in your writing and potentially in


speaking, inversion should only be used occasionally for dramatic effect. Overusing
it will make your English sound rather unnatural.

CLEFT SENTENCES
Sentences introduced by a clause beginning with ‘What’ are also used to emphasize
a specific subject or object. The clause introduced by ‘What’ is employed as the
subject of the sentence as is followed by the verb ‘to be’.
Click on the image for further reading :
Wh-Cleft and It-Cleft Sentences
In English grammar, you can come across different clefts constructions such as –
“It-Cleft” and “Wh-Cleft”. These “wh-” clefts are often considered as “what” in the
construction.

A cleft sentence can also be called a special structure that is used to emphasize
particular words or phrases. Generally, in a cleft sentence, you can put everything
into a relative clause except the words which you wish to emphasize. You can see
that these sentence structures can be very useful in writing and also very common in
speech.

● There is more focus on one part as compared to another.


● Generally, the cleft sentence starts with “it”.
● This cleft sentence is followed by the verb phrase whose main verb is
in “be” form.
● In a sentence, the focused part comes first.
● It is followed by the relative pronoun, relative determiner or sometimes
the relative adverb.

*You can also refer to wh-structures as pseudo-cleft sentences

Click on the link for a set of exercises - keys are included


Click on this link, to practice inversion

Mehaan, P., Gomez Calvillo, N., Díaz, M., & Golfi, L. (n.d.). Contrastive Grammar:

A Theory and Practice Handbook 2017. Contrastive Grammar: A Theory and

Practice Handbook 2017. Retrieved October 13, 2021, from

https://rdu.unc.edu.ar/bitstream/handle/11086/15105/CG%20Handbook.pdf?

sequence=4&isAllowed=y

Lengua y Fonología. (2021). In Tecnicatura Superior en la Traducción de Textos

en Inglés (1st ed., Vol. 1, pp. 34–35). Ediciones Mallea.

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