Had I known...! - English Speaking Skills

Joris?

Joris Is that you?

Oh hello, Tom

Tom?

What are you doing at the G7?

Yeah yeah, I just started working for France

Oh, that's lovely! Good for you, good for you!

are you okay?

I'm okay I just

I think everyone in there, they didn't really like me didn't respect me

The thing about your privates?

The balls thing, yes

they've all seen them

they can't respect me anymore

Right sure yeah

Had I known this would happen

I wouldn't have taken those photos, Tom

I understand completely

and you know were the situation to happen again

I'm sure you would play it differently

DIFFERENTLY! Yes that's exactly what I say

Only you get me

Oh come back and work for me, Tom!

I'm sorry Mr Bonson I really can't

I just started this job with France and

they're good to me

Okay, should I increase your salary

would that make you come back?

It's really not about the money

Oh

I'm sorry Joris

No no, I understand!

and should you find yourself ever in need of employment

please don't hesitate to, you know, message me on Instagram

Why are you still on Instagram?! That's what got you in this mess!

Had I not started on Instagram like you told me to

I wouldn't have

259 followers

I'm famous now

I'm sorry Joris, I really have to go

it was really good seeing you again

Call me!

We can also see inversion with conditionals!

For example

"If you need any more help, let me know!"

This sentence, you could say "if you should need any more help let me know"

you probably won't hear that but let's use should that's our modal verb before

the subject so we lose "if" should! "Should" you need any more help let me know

Again this sounds more formal so let's make some of these words more formal

What's the more formal word for "need"?

Should you "require" any more... what's a more formal word for "help"?

should you require any more "assistance..." we can change "more"

"further" so this actually if you write emails in your job in English

this is a great way to finish your email

"Should you require any further assistance let me know / please let me know"

This is a very formal way of ending an email

second conditional, this is where it gets fun!

If we went to London we could see Hyde Park

How does inversion change this?

Let's break it down

"IF + subject" --> "WERE + subject"

"Were I", "Were you", "Were we", and the verb what happens?

TO go, TO do, TO see

Yes English is weird, and yes there is an an exception to this

It's the verb to be, sorry!

For example: Anna Kendrick... I love her!

If she were my girlfriend, I'd be so happy!

Because THIS verb is "were", "to be"

We don't use it twice

For example

"Were she TO BE my girlfriend"? No that, that's, no!

Just simply "Were she my girlfriend I'd be so happy"

"If you hadn't eaten my pizza we would still be friends"

now with that past conditional

it gets even more fun

so "If you hadn't eaten... "

With inversion becomes...

"HAD you NOT EATEN my pizza we'd still be friends

You see again it sounds more dramatic, formal, and emphatic!

Remember this example?

Using a third conditional she could say

"If I had known my boss was watching, I wouldn't have twerked"

How do I change THIS into the inversion ...version?

"HAD I KNOWN my boss was watching

obviously, I wouldn't have twerked!"

now you've also seen inversion with "so do I", "neither do I", bla bla bla bla bla

I've made a video on "so / neither / nor"

You can watch that by clicking right here

Go watch that if you need that lesson!

Try your own examples using inversion in the comments

It's something that you need to add to your speaking skills

So practice practice practice and I'll see you in the next class!