INVERSION – C2 Proficiency

The term covers two grammatical operations:

 using a question form of the verb:

Never have I heard such a persuasive speaker.
 changing the normal position of the verb and subject:
In front of the committee sat Maria.

* Inversion after negative adverbials:

 word order is inverted after certain words and phrases when these are put
at the beginning of a sentence or clause in order to emphasize them; this
kind of inversion is found mainly in formal speech and writing:

 occurs after words and phrases with negative meaning:

 time expressions: never, rarely, seldom

Rarely have I met anyone with such enthusiasm.

Seldom did she raise her voice.

 these are commonly used with Present Perfect or Past Simple or with
modals such as can or could; such sentences often contain
comparatives:

Rarely can a minister have been faced with such a problem.

Never has the band given a worse performance.

 time expressions: hardly / barely / scarcely … when; no sooner …

than;

No sooner had Maria walked through the door than she started talking
about the proposal.
Hardly had he got into bed when his neighbours started playing very
loud music.

 after only - here only combines with other time expressions and is
usually used with Past Simple: only after, only if, only when, only
then, only later

Only after Maria threatened to withdraw her support did the council
back down.
  phrases containing no / not: on no account, under no circumstances,
at no time, in no way, on no condition, not until, not only (...but
also), not since, not once, not for the moment, not a + noun;

At no time has she ever accepted payment for her educational work.
Not only has she persuaded the council members to donate money,
but she has also encouraged them to volunteer for the project.
She argued that under no circumstances should children from poorer
backgrounds be made to pay for classes.

 little with a negative / restricted meaning:

Little did she realise when she set up the project that it would be so
influential.

* Inversion after so/such with that

 occurs with so and adjectives when the main verb is be - it emphasizes

the adjective

So successful has the concert been that the band has been invited to
have a world tour.

 such + be… that is used to emphasize the extent or degree of

something (means so much / so great)

Such was the force of the storm that trees were uprooted.

* Inverted conditional sentences without if

 in formal or literary English we can use clauses beginning with were,

should and had + inversion of subject and verb, instead of
hypothetical conditional:

Were she ever to leave the orchestra, she would be greatly missed.
= If she left…/ If she were to leave…
Were he here tonight, he would express his thanks personally to her.
= If he were...
Should you need any information, please feel free to contact me.
= If you need… / If you should need…
Had she known about that, she wouldn’t have come.
 = If she had known…

 in negative clauses with inversion, we don’t use contracted forms:

 Had Jane not set up the project…
 NOT Hadn’t Jane set up the project…

* Inversion after as

 are common in formal and written language

We were short of money, as were most people in our neighbourhood.

I thought, as did my friends, that the crisis would soon be over.

* Inversion after so, neither and nor

 used in echoing statements, agreeing or disagreeing

I love English. So do I.
I haven’t seen this movie. Neither have I.

* Inversion with here and there

Here comes our bus.

I opened the door and there stood Michael, all covered in mud.

* We can use inversion if we put an adverbial expression of place at the

beginning of a sentence (formal or literary)

On the table was all the money we had lost.

Round the corner came the knights.