Inversion
Brian Thanyavong
Inversion
• Inversion happens in English for
emphasis, dramatic purpose or
formality.
• This type of inversion uses negative
and limiting adverbs - these are a
group of adverbs which limit the
meaning of a verb or make it
negative.
• Examples are never, hardly, no, only,
etc.
How to invert a sentence
• To invert a sentence, move the adverbial to the beginning of the sentence and invert the subject
and auxiliary verb:
‘I had never met someone so interesting.’
Becomes: ‘Never had I met someone so interesting.’
'He won't often go to work.'
Becomes: 'Not often will he go to work'
• Notice that if the auxiliary verb is negative in the first sentence, it becomes affirmative in the inverted
sentence and the 'not' moves to the front.
• In cases where the tense does not use an auxiliary verb in the
affirmative, such as the present simple or the past simple, one must be
added.
Present Simple:
‘I rarely go outside.’ = ‘Rarely do I go outside.’
Auxiliary verb 'They don't ever know what to do.' = 'Never do they know what to do.'
Past Simple: (Notice how the verb changes from past tense to infinitive)
‘She seldom worked very hard.’ = ‘Seldom did she work very hard.’
'We never went to the shopping centre.' = 'At no time did we go to the
shopping centre.'
• Some negative or limiting adverbials require
you to complete a whole clause before the
inversion takes place.
‘I didn’t know what to do until I saw what had
happened.’
Not until I saw what had happened did I know what
to do.’
• In this case, ‘Not until I saw what happened’ is
the adverbial clause. The inversion takes place
after this, in the main clause.
