Inversion exercises

Inversion

We use inversion in several different situations in English. Inversion just means putting the verb

before the subject. We usually do it in question forms:

 Normal sentence: You are tired. (The subject is ‘you’. It’s before the verb ‘are’.)

 Question form: Are you tired? (The verb ‘are’ is before the subject ‘you’. They have changed

places. This is called ‘inversion’.)

In most English verb tenses, when we want to use inversion, we just move the verb to before the

subject. If there’s more than one verb, because a verb tense has auxiliary verbs for example, we move

the first verb.

There are two verb tenses where we just change the places of the verb and subject:

 Present simple with ‘be’: am I / are you / is he

 Past simple with ‘be’: were you / was she

With other verb tenses, we change the place of the subject and the auxiliary verb (the first auxiliary

verb if there is more than one). We don’t move the other parts of the verb:

 Present continuous: am I going / are you going

 Past continuous: was he going / were they going

 Present perfect: have we gone / has she gone

 Present perfect continuous: has she been going / have they been going

 Past perfect: had you gone

 Past perfect continuous: had he been going

 Future simple: will they go

 Future continuous: will you be going

 Future perfect: will they have gone

 Future perfect continuous: will she have been going

 Modal verbs: should I go / would you go

There are two tenses where we need to add do / does / did to make the question form. This is usually

still called inversion.

 Present simple with any verb except ‘be’ (add ‘do’ or ‘does’): do you go / does he go

 Past simple with any verb except ‘be’ (add ‘did’): did we go / did they go

When do we use inversion?

Of course, we use inversion in questions. But we also sometimes use inversion in other cases, when

we are not making a question.

1: When we use a negative adverb or adverb phrase at the beginning of the sentence.

Usually, we put the expression at the beginning of the sentence to emphasise what we’re saying. It

makes our sentence sound surprising or striking or unusual. It also sounds quite formal. If you don’t

want to give this impression, you can put the negative expression later in the sentence in the normal

way:

 Seldom have I seen such beautiful work.

(‘Seldom’ is at the beginning, so we use inversion. This sentence emphasizes what beautiful

work it is.)

 I have seldom seen such beautiful work.

(‘Seldom’ is in the normal place, so we don’t use inversion. This is a normal sentence with no

special emphasis.)

We only use inversion when the adverb modifies the whole phrase and not when it modifies the noun:

Hardly anyone passed the exam. (No inversion.)

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.© 2014 www.perfect-english-grammar.com

May be freely copied for personal or classroom use.

Rarely

Rarely will you hear such beautiful music.

Only then

Only then did I understand why the tragedy had happened.

Not only … but

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

No sooner

No sooner had we arrived home than the police rang the doorbell.

Scarcely

Scarcely had I got off the bus when it crashed into the back of a car.

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.

In the following expressions, the inversion comes in the second part of the sentence:

Not until

Not until I saw John with my own eyes did I really believe he was safe.

Not since

Not since Lucy left college had she had such a wonderful time.

Only after

Only after I’d seen her flat did I understand why she wanted to live there.

Only when

Only when we’d all arrived home did I feel calm.

Only by

Only by working extremely hard could we afford to eat.

2: 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!

3: We can use inversion if we put an adverbial expression of place at the beginning on 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.)

4: 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.)

Exercise 

1 We can go on with the plan only if you agree.

Only if ………………………………………………….

2 Esther won’t leave the house under any circumstances.

Under…………………………………………………………

3 If the river rises any higher, the town will be flooded.

Should………………………………………………………..

4 If you’d paid on time, you wouldn’t have been cut off.

Had…………………………………………………………..

5 He had just recovered from flu when he caught a bad cold.

No……………………………………………………………

6 He took such a long holiday that he forgot how to do his job.

Such a long holiday………………………………………

7 They managed to get our attention only by shouting and waving their arms.

Only by………………………………………………………

8 He only asks for help when he is really desperate.

Only when……………………………………………………..

9 If I see him, I’ll give him your message.

I’ll give him your message………………………………..

10 Tom never seems worried about his future.

Never…………………………………………………………

11 I’ve never had such fun  anywhere else.

Nowhere ……………………………………………….

12 Lynne didn’t realise that her mother was so worried about her.

Little…………………………………………………….

13 The army marched forward into the battle.

Forward………………………………………………..

14 Her parents and her friends warned her not to go alone.

Her parents warned her not to go alone as ……………….

15 She sang so well that she was offered  a record deal.

So well ……………………………………….

16 I only watch television when I have nothing else to do.

Only when I have …………………………………..

17 The door to the basement isn’t to be left open on any account.

On…………………………………………………….

18 Bob forgot his mother’s birthday and his sister’s too.

Bob didn’t remember his mother’s birthday;  neither……………..

19 He was so anxious that he kept biting his nails.

Such ………………………………………………

20 He didn’t thank me once for feeding his cat.

Not………………………………………………………….