Inversion

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INVERSION
PERFECT ENGLISH GRAMMAR
Download this explanation in PDF here.
We use inversion in several different situations in
English. Inversion just means putting the verb before
the subject. We usually do it in question forms:
Normal sentence: You are tired. (The subject is

'you'. It's before the verb 'are'.)
Question form: Are you tired? (The verb 'are' is
before the subject 'you'. They have changed
places. This is called inversion.)
Hello! I'm Seonaid!
In most English verb tenses, when we want to use
inversion, we just move the verb to before the subject. I'm here to help you
If there's more than one verb, because a verb tense understand grammar
has auxiliary verbs for example, we move the first and speak correct, fluent
verb. English.
With two verb tenses where we just change the

places of the verb and subject:
Present simple with 'be': am I / are you / is he

Past simple with 'be': were you / was she
With other verbs tenses, we change the place of the

subject and the auxiliary verb (the first auxiliary verb if
there is more than one). We don't move the other
parts of the verb:
Present continuous: am I going / are you going

Past continuous: was he going / were they going
Present perfect: have we gone / has she gone
Present perfect continuous: has she been going
/ have they been going
Past perfect: had you gone
Past perfect continuous: had he been going
Future simple: will they go
Future continuous: will you be going
Future perfect: will they have gone Click here to read more
Future perfect continuous: will she have been about our learning
going
method
Modal verbs: should I go / would you go
There are two tenses where we need to add 'do /

does / did' to make the question form. We also need
to change the main verb back to the infinitive. This is
usually still called inversion.
Present simple with any verb except 'be' (add 'do'

or 'does'): do you go / does he go
Past simple with any verb except 'be' (add 'did'):
did we go / did they go
When do we use inversion? Of course, we use

inversion in questions. You can read more about this
here. 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 had I got into bed when the

Hardly
telephone rang.
Never had she seen such a beautiful sight
Never
before.
Seldom do we see such an amazing
Seldom
display of dance.
Rarely Rarely will you hear such beautiful music.
Only then did I understand why the tragedy
Only then
had happened.
Not only ... Not only does he love chocolate and
but sweets but he also smokes.
No No sooner had we arrived home than the
sooner police rang the doorbell.
Scarcely had I got off the bus when it
Scarcely
crashed into the back of a car.
Only later did she really think about the
Only later
situation.
Nowhere Nowhere have I ever had such bad service.
Little Little did he know!
Only in Only in this way could John earn enough
this way money to survive.
In no way do I agree with what you're
In no way
saying.
On no On no account should you do anything
account without asking me first.
In the following expressions, the inversion comes in

the second part of the sentence:
Not Not until I saw John with my own eyes did I

until really believe he was safe.
Not Not since Lucy left college had she had such a
since wonderful time.
Only Only after I'd seen her flat did I understand
after why she wanted to live there.
Only Only when we'd all arrived home did I feel
when calm.
Only Only by working extremely hard could we
by afford to eat.
We only use inversion when the adverb modifies the

whole phrase and not when it modifies the noun:
Hardly anyone passed the exam. (No inversion.)
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.)
Try an exercise about inversion here.
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Download this explanation in PDF here.

We use inversion in several different situations in

English. Inversion just means putting the verb before

the subject. We usually do it in question forms:

Normal sentence: You are tired. (The subject is

With two verb tenses where we just change the

Present simple with 'be': am I / are you / is he

With other verbs tenses, we change the place of the

Present continuous: am I going / are you going

There are two tenses where we need to add 'do /

Present simple with any verb except 'be' (add 'do'

When do we use inversion? Of course, we use

1: When we use a negative adverb or adverb phrase

Usually, we put the expression at the beginning of the

Seldom have I seen such beautiful work.

Here are some negative adverbs and adverb phrases

Hardly had I got into bed when the

In the following expressions, the inversion comes in

Not Not until I saw John with my own eyes did I

We only use inversion when the adverb modifies the

2: We can use inversion instead of 'if' in conditionals

Normal conditional: If I had been there, this

Normal conditional: If we had arrived sooner, we

3: We can use inversion if we put an adverbial

On the table was all the money we had lost.

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

So beautiful was the girl that nobody could talk

Try an exercise about inversion here.

Do you want to master English grammar?

MADE WITH LOVE IN LONDON

NEWSLETTER CONTACT ABOUT MEMBERSHIP

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