Learning English

Inversion 1: After Negative or Limiting Adverbs

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Summary

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...and there are others (see grammar page for more details)

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.’  becomes  ‘Rarely do I go outside.’
'They don't ever know what to do' becomes 'Never do they know what to do.'

Past Simple: (Notice how the verb changes from past tense to infinitive)
‘She seldom worked very hard.’ becomes ‘Seldom did she work very hard.’
'We never went to the shopping centre.' becomes '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.’ becomes ‘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. 

'Hardly' puts the inversion in the adverbial clause. It uses 'than' and 'when' to connect with the main clause.

‘Hardly had I got home than the dog started barking.’
'Hardly had he got into the bath when the phone rang.’

Little did they know means they didn't know. The subject can be changed.

‘Little did they know that he had stolen all of their money.’ (They didn't know he had stolen all of their money)
'Little did he know that they would never meet again.' (He didn't know that they would never meet again.)

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