INVERSION

Inversion means change in word order. These following words or group of words are
followed by invesion when they begin a sentence.
 Not until  Never
 Not only  Under the circumstances Active
Does/Do/Did
 Rarely  With no exception
Has/Have/Had
 In no way  At no time Will/would S+V
 Scarcely  Seldom Modal
 Only  Hardly Passive
 No longer  No sooner To be
 Nor  No longer
Ex: 1. I have never seen such a beautiful rose
Never have I seen such a beautiful rose
2. Earthquake not only destroys the buildings but also the fragile ecosystem
Not only does the earthquake destroy the buildings but also the fragile ecosystem.
3. Rendang is seldom made of fish
Seldom is Rendang made of fish

Samples from TOEFL:

1. Not until the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries _____ as a unified
science.
a. Did ecology emerge
b. When ecology emerged
c. Ecology emerged
d. When did ecology emerge

2. Seldom … games been of practical use in playing real games.

a. theories of mathematics
b. theorized as mathematics
c. has the mathematical theory of
d. the mathematical theory has

3. Not until 1741 and the first installment of Benjamin Franklin’s General magazine
_______________ their first appearance in North America.
a. When did literary magazines begin to make
b. Did literary magazines begin to make
c. Literary magazine began to make
d. Began to make literary magazines

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 4. Not only ________________ the center of French language and culture in North
America, it is also the second largest province in Canada with respect to
population.
a. Considering Quebec
b. Where Quebec is considered
c. Quebec is considered
d. Is Quebec considered.

5. Not until fairly recently ____________ that land is not a limitless commodity.
a. Americans have realized
b. When have American realized
c. Have Americans realized
d. But Americans have realized

6. Despite widespread recognition of worsening urban housing problems in the

1850s, only after 1865 _________ to improve housing conditions.
a. Undertaking efforts by the United States government
b. Did the efforts undertaken by the United States government
c. Efforts that were undertaken by the United States government
d. Did the United States government undertake efforts

7. Only with early seventeenth-century observers did the music of the original
inhabitants of the
A B C
United States and Canada entered recorded history.
D

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