How to emphasize: Fronting and inversion
C1 ADVANCED
EOI VALENCIA-BENICALAP
Teacher: Encarni González Lara
Fronting and inversion
DEFINITIONS:
Fronting: this is when we start a sentence with sth (i.e.
a complement of “be” or an adverbial of place or
direction) that is not the subject:
Up jumped the cat.
Inversion: this is when the word order in a statement is
not the typical subject + verb, but auxiliary + subject +
verb:
Never did I stop loving you.
Fronting and inversion
USES:
We use fronting and inversion:
1. Because we want to emphasize what we put
at the beginning of the sentence
2. In formal texts
Fronting
Structure:
FRONTED/EMPHASIZED ELEMENT + VERB + SUBJECT:
Here comes the doctor.
When the subject is a personal pronoun, we keep
the usual word order (fronted + subject+ verb):
Here he comes. (Not: Here comes he).
We don’t use “DO”:
The cat jumped up. –>
Fronting
Uses:
We find the word order FRONTED ELEMENT + VERB + SUBJECT:
When the complement of “be” is fronted:
His speciality is Andalucian gastronomy. Andalucian gastronomy is
his speciality.
A beach hut is standing on the sand. Standing on the sand is a beach
hut.
When an adverbial of place, direction or time is fronted:
An old woman was behind the desk. –> Behind the desk was an old
woman. (place)
Joan walked into the room. –>Into the room walked Joan. (direction)
Inversion
Structure:
EMPHASIZED ELEMENT + AUXILIARY + SUBJECT + VERB
When the sentence does not contain an
auxiliary verb, we use a form of “do”:
We rarely visit that part of the town. Rarely
do we visit that part of the town.
Emphasized el. – aux – subject – verb
Inversion
Uses:
We find the word order EMPHASIZED ELEMENT +
AUXIL. + SUBJECT + VERB:
When a negative word/phrase is put at the
beginning of the sentence:
Not until I got home did I realise how lucky I had
been.
Under no circumstances should you exercise
Inversion
Uses:
We find the word order EMPHASIZED ELEMENT +
AUXIL. + SUBJECT + VERB:
When a limiting word/phrase (only/little) is put at the beginning
of the sentence:
Only after her death was I able to aprreciate her.
Little did I know that the course of my life was about to change.
“Little” (adverb) is used here to say that someone did not know
or think that something would happen or was true.
Inversion
Uses:
We find the word order AUXILIARY + SUBJECT + VERB:
(Here the auxiliary verb is the emphasized element)
In conditional clauses, when we don’t use the conditional
conjuntion but start with the auxiliaries “should/were/had”:
First conditional: SHOULD + SUBJECT + INFINITIVE VERB
If you arrive late, go straight to my office. Should you arrive late, go
straight to my office.
Second conditional: WERE + SUBJECT
Inversion
Uses:
We find the word order EMPHASIZED ELEMENT + AUXIL.
(=MAIN VERB) + SUBJECT:
When “so” is used at the beginning of a sentence/clause:
So successful was her business that Marie retired at the
age of 50.
When “such” is used at the beginning of a sentence:
Such is the popularity of the play that the theatre is likely
to be full every night.