We use inversion in several different situations in English.
Inversion just means putting the verb before the subject.
1: When we use a negative adverb or adverb phrase at the beginning of
the sentence.
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.
The inversion comes in the second part of the sentence:
Not until - Not until I saw John with my own eyes did I really believe he was safe.
Not since - Not since Lucy left college had she had such a wonderful time.
Only after - Only after I'd seen her flat did I understand why she wanted to live there.
Only when - Only when we'd all arrived home did I feel calm.
Only by - Only by working extremely hard could we afford to eat.
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.)
HOMEWORK
Inversion
Change the normal sentence into one with inversion. For example: "We had
hardly arrived when Julie burst into the house" becomes "Hardly had we
arrived when Julie burst into the house".
1) John had never been to such a fantastic restaurant
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2) I in no way want to be associated with this project
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3) They had no sooner eaten dinner than the ceiling crashed onto the dining table
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4) I had scarcely finished writing my essay when the examiner announced the end of the
exam.
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5) I seldom leave my house so early.
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6) People rarely appreciate this musicians talent.
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7) We would understand what had happened that night only later
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8) They had met such rude people nowhere before.
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9) He understood little about the situation.
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10) The children should on no account go on their own.
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