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INVERSION EXPLANATION

Inversion is a grammatical structure that alters the word order of a sentence, commonly used in interrogative sentences and specific contexts such as time relationships and frequency. It often involves negative adverbs and can replace conditional phrases with 'had', 'were', or 'should'. Additionally, inversion can occur with certain phrasal verbs, after direct speech, and when starting a sentence with an adverbial of place.

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10 views

INVERSION EXPLANATION

Inversion is a grammatical structure that alters the word order of a sentence, commonly used in interrogative sentences and specific contexts such as time relationships and frequency. It often involves negative adverbs and can replace conditional phrases with 'had', 'were', or 'should'. Additionally, inversion can occur with certain phrasal verbs, after direct speech, and when starting a sentence with an adverbial of place.

Uploaded by

Chokri Torkhani
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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INVERSION

WHAT IS INVERSION?
Inversion refers to a change in the word order of a phrase/sentence. It occurs in all
interrogative sentences. It also happens in the structures set out below. In fact, what happens
is that we use the interrogative structure in these cases. This will mean using the auxiliary verb
“do/does/did” in present and past simple structures.

WE USE INVERSION IN:


Time relationships
We use inversion after ‘negative’ adverbs which emphasize a time relationship at the
beginning of a sentence:
No sooner had I picked up the phone, I knew I had got accepted into Harvard

We use inversion with phrases that use not:


Not since I was a kid had I seen such a great movie.

We use inversion with some time phrases that use only:


Only after I visited my grandmother, did I come to know about my grandfather
fighting in the war.

Frequency
We use inversion after ‘negative’ adverbs which emphasize frequency at the beginning of
a sentence.
Never have I visited the MoMa.

We can also use inversion after ‘negative’ adverbs at the beginning of a sentence to
emphasize how infrequently things happen.
Little did she realize what was about to happen.

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

NO SOONER No sooner had we got home than the police rang the doorbell. (Remember to use “than” - “sooner” is a comparative adjective!)
SCARCELY Scarcely had I got off the bus when it crashed into the back of a car.

Had/were/should…
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!

So + adjective + that…
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.)

Special cases. These are inversions which change the word order but do not use
the interrogative structure.

Some phrasal verbs


We can use inversion after some phrasal verbs, usually of movement. This is used especially in
imperatives or story-telling:
Come on, up you go! (For example, to a child who you are telling to walk up some
steps.)
And off they went into the sunset. (For example, at the end of a narrative.)

After direct speech …


We can use inversion after direct speech. This is used especially in story-telling:
“Don’t tell anyone,” whispered Jenny.

Adverbial of place…
We can use inversion if we put an adverbial expression of place at the beginning of 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.)

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