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1: When we use a negative adverb or adverb phrase at the beginning of the
sentence to sound surprising, striking, unusual or rather formal.
Normal sentence: I have seldom seen such beautiful work.
Inversion: Seldom have I seen such beautiful work.
phrase example
Seldom Seldom do we see such an amazing display of dance.
Rarely Rarely will you hear such beautiful music.
Never Never had she seen such a beautiful sight before.
Never before Never before have they read such a moving book.
Not even once Not even once did Alex keep an appointment
Not Not a single word did we say.
Little Little did he realise the danger he faced!
Truly Truly are the tax gatherers unbeloved people.
Only later Only later did she really think about the situation.
Only in this way Only in this way could John earn enough money to survive.
Only then Only then did I understand why the tragedy had happened.
Nowhere (else) Nowhere have I ever had such bad service.
At no time At no time did I say I would rewrite my weak essays.
In no way In no way do I agree with what you're saying.
In vain In vain does Anna try to explain her mistakes.
On no account should you do anything without asking me
On no account
first.
Under no
Under no circumstances should you enter that room.
circumstances
In no circumstances had they finished their project by last
In no circumstances
Tuesday.
Still less Still less did he think of his friend as a cheater at school.
Adverb phrases that are strictly used together:
Hardly Hardly had I got into bed when the telephone rang.
Scarcely had I got off the bus when it crashed into the back
Scarcely
of a car.
No sooner had we arrived home than the police rang the
No sooner
doorbell.
Barely had I arrived home when there was a knock on the
Barely
door.
Not only does he love chocolate but also he is keen on ice-
Not only
cream.
In the following expressions, the inversion comes in the second part of the sentence:
Not until I saw John with my own eyes did I really believe he
Not until / Not till
was safe.
Not since Lucy left college had she had such a wonderful
Not since
time.
Only after Only after I'd read the book did I understand the play.
Only if Only if you follow my advice will you succeed.
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!
Normal conditional: If you should see Paul, tell him to call me.
Conditional with inversion: Should you see Paul, tell him to call me.
Normal conditional: If it weren’t for Mike, we wouldn’t know what to do.
Conditional with inversion: Weren’t it for Mike, we wouldn’t know what to do.
Normal conditional: If it hadn’t been for your foolishness, we wouldn’t have
got lost.
Conditional with inversion: Hadn’t it been for your foolishness, we wouldn’t
have got lost.
Normal conditional: I wish he may never done that.
Conditional with inversion: May he never done that.
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 were the girls that nobody could talk of anything else.
Normal sentence: The girls were 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.
5: When we use a positive or negative reinforcement:
I like tea. So do I.
She was a talented musician, as was her sister.
She can’t stand hot weather. Neither / Nor can her Mom.
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