inversion

In English, an inversion is the reversal of the normal word order, putting the verb before the subject.^[1]https://www.thoughtco.com/inversion-grammar-term-1691193

So when do we use inversions?

Questions

The most well-known case to use an inversion is in a question.

For example:

Phrase: You are hungry.

Question: Are you hungry?

In this case, the verb goes before the subject. However, there are cases where an auxiliary verb is used. In those cases, only the auxiliary verb goes before the subject.

For example:

Phrase: She is going to go to the store.

Question: Is she going to go to the store.

Negative Adverbs

You can use a inversions when a negative adverb or adverb phrase is at the beginning of a sentence.

For example:

• Never had I seen such a beautiful sunset in my whole life.
• Seldom do we eat so well.
• Nowhere have I had such bad service.

Conditionals

You can replace the “if” in a conditional with a inversions when using words such as had, were, and should.

This is a more formal way of speaking.

For example:

Normal conditional: If I had studied, I would have done well on the test.

Inversion: Had I studied, I would have done well on the test.

Adverbial Expression of Place

You can use an inversion to replace an adverbial expression of place. Similar to the previous example this is quite formal.

For example:

Adverbial Expression of Place: All the candy that we had received for trick-or-treating on Halloween was on the table.

Inversion: On the table was all the candy we had received for trick-or-treating on Halloween.

So + Adjective…that

You can use an inversion after the phrase “so + adjective…that”.

For example:

Original sentence: The turkey was so big that we couldn’t fit it in the oven.

Inversion: So big was the turkey that we couldn’t fit it in the oven.

Practice Exercises

Restructure the following phrases to form an inversion.