English Grammar - Inversion: "Had I known...", "Should you need..."

Hi. Welcome again to www.engvid.com. I'm Adam. Today's lesson is about inversion. Now, what

does "inversion" mean? "Inversion" is when you change the order of something. Right?

So we're looking at grammar. Usually, you know in a sentence a subject comes first and

then a verb. Today we're going to look at situations where that is reversed. Now, of

course, I'm sure that you know that in questions: "Are you sure?" the verb comes before the

subject in all questions. That's what makes a question structure a question structure.

However, there are other situations where we have this inversion, but we're looking

at a sentence; we're not looking at a question.

Now, the thing to understand about inversions is that they are very particular. There are

only a few expressions that you're going to use inversion with. You can't put them in

just about... In just any sentence that you want. The examples that I've written on the

board are the ones that you might read or that you might want to write. There are other

situations that use this, but unless you're writing poetry or artistic, creative novels

- you don't need them and you don't really need to worry about them either. They're very

rare. It's very rare you'll see them. It's very, very formal language style. And you'll

recognize them, hopefully, when you do see them.

So let's start here. When we have "not only". Generally speaking, when we have a sentence

that begins with a negative, we're going to have inversion, but especially when you have

"not only", you're going to have inversion. Okay?

"Not only did he", so there's your verb, there's your subject, there's your verb. Okay? We

have the helping verb, the auxiliary verb to start. "Not only did he win", and then

we have the "but", "also" to go with "not only". This is like an expression that's fixed;

you're always going to be looking at the same thing. "Not only did he win, but he also broke

the record." Whatever. "Not only", inversion, "but also".

"Under no circumstances", this is another expression that you'll see regularly. And

again, we're looking at the negative construction which is why we're looking at the inversion.

"Under no circumstances should you call her/call him."

Okay? Whatever you do, don't call. "Under no circumstances". "Circumstances", basically

situation. In no situation should you call. In no situation, same idea. Okay?

Another negative: "nor". What is "nor"? Is the negative of "or". Okay? "Or", "nor". Again,

many people don't use this word anymore; it's a little bit old-fashioned, a little bit high

formality level. But... "The mayor of Toronto refused to resign, nor

do we expect him to." Okay? So after "nor", we still have the inversion.

Verb, subject, verb. Verb, subject. Okay? I'm not sure if you know the mayor of Toronto,

he's very famous now. We're not very proud, but that's a whole other story.

Next, so these are the three negatives. These two are also very similar. Again, very formal

style, but you might see it, you might want to use it in your essays or whatever.

"Should you need any help, don't hesitate to call."

What does this mean? "Should you need", if you need. "Should" is just a more formal way

to say: "if". "If you need any help, don't hesitate to call.", "Should you need any help,

don't hesitate to call." Now, this is a verb, subject, verb. If we use: "if", then there's

no issue. Then you have "if" which is a conjunction, adverb, clause, conjunction, subject, verb.

"Should" makes it verb, subject, verb.

"Had" is the same thing with the "if", but a different structure of the conditional,

a different "if" structure. "Had I known you were coming, I would have

changed." "If I had known", "If I had known you were

coming", "Had I known", it's basically you're making the sentence a little bit shorter,

a little more formal. You're starting with a verb, a subject, and another verb. Okay?

Past perfect, of course. So these are the conditionals, these are the no's.

Now, we have the comparatives, when you're comparing something. When you're comparing

an action, so you're using the clause marker: "as", not the preposition: "like". So:

"John speaks Chinese, as does Lucy." Okay? "Lucy" is actually the subject, here's

the verb, here's a subject. Now, I could put a period and put a new sentence. "So does

Lucy." Same idea. "Lucy does as well." If I want the subject, verb order. But when you

start with "as", you're going to invert the order. This is a clause marker, adverb clause

marker to compare.

"More important than love is money." Now, you're thinking: "Well, isn't love the

subject?" No, "money" is the subject. "Money is more important than love." But again, style,

you want to have it a little bit different... Different structure to impress the reader,

to make it a little bit different - you start with the comparative, and then the verb, and

then the subject. Okay. Because then "love", this is an object in this situation.

Then we have a few expressions. "Here comes Jane."

Now, "here" is not a subject; "here" is here. Right? It's an... It's an adverb in this situation.

"Jane comes here." Sounds a little strange, doesn't it? That's why we invert everything

to make it a little bit more natural. "Here comes Jane." Here comes Jane.

Then we have some expressions. Now, it looks like a question but we make it look like a

question to give it more emphasis, to give it more strength.

"Man, is it cold out!" I'm not asking you: "Is it cold out?" No,

I know it's cold out. I'm telling you it's cold out and I'm telling you very strongly.

"Is it cold out.", "Man, am I hungry." It means: I am really hungry, but making it very

strong; we're making a point of emphasizing which is why we invert the subject and the

verb. Okay?

And, of course, you have your question. "Are you sure?"

"Are you happy?", "Did he come?", "Did you see that?" Whatever the situation is.

So there you... You have it: inversion. It's not complicated. You have to just remember

the particular structures that use inversion. When you see it, you'll understand what's

going on; when you want to use it, here's your list. Pick one, write your sentence,

make it work.

Of course, go to www.engvid.com. We have a quiz there that you can practice these a little

bit more. And we'll see you again soon.