Grammar

• Reported Speech

• Contrast clauses : however, in spite of, however, (al)though

• 
  

• Phrasal verb review

Phrasal verbs - exercises

Phrasal verbs - exercises

Phrasal verbs - game

80 phrasal verbs - game 

• Prepositions

Theory

Verbs + prepositions 1

Verbs + prepositions 2

Prepositions after verbs 1

Prepositions after verbs 2

Prepositions after verbs 3

• Questions for the answers

Practice 1        Practice 2

Practice 3       Practice 4     

Practice 5 

• Word Order

Statements 1

Statements 2

Mixed

Mixed in the past

• Inversion

When do we use inversion? 

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

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

This makes our sentence more emphatic and sounds  striking or unusual. It is also quite formal:

• 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.)

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.

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

NOWHEREhave 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.

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.)

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!

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.)

Try an exercise about inversion here.

• Review (all grammar)