SENTENCES WITH

INVERTED SUBJECTS AND

VERBS
•He can go to the movies
•Can he go to the movies?
The most common problems with this method are:
1. With question words such as
“what,when,where,why and how”.
2. After some place expressions
3. After negative expression
4. In some conditionals
5. After some comparisons
 1. WITH QUESTION WORDS
These words (what,when,who,etc) have two very different
functions in a sentence.

•Introduce a question (subject and verb are inverted)

- Where are you going?
- When can I leave?
•When the question word connects two clauses, the subject and
verb that follow are not inverted.
- I do not know what the homework is.
- I know who/what they are
- Do you know where you are going?
- The professor doesn’t understand why so many
students did poorly on the exam.
 2. WITH PLACE EXPRESSIONS
This can happen with single words expressing place such as here, there, and nowhere
-Here is the book that you lent me.
- Nowhere have I seen such beautiful weather.

And also after prepositional phrase expressing place.

- In the closet are clothes that you want
- Around the corner is Rudi’s house
- Beyond the mountains lies the town where you will live
When a place expression is necessary to complete the sentence, subject and verb
are inverted
*In the classroom were some old desk
*In the forest are many exotic birds

When It contains extra information that is not needed to complete the sentence,
subject and verb are not inverted
*In the classroom, I studied very hard
*In the forest, I walked for many hours
 3. WITH NEGATIVES
When negative expressions (no, not or never) come at the beginning of a
sentence, the subject and verb are inverted.
- Not once did I miss a question.
- Never has Mr. Jones taken a vacation
- At no time can the woman talk on the telephone
•Certain words in English such as hardly, rarely, scarcely, only, act like negatives.
If they come at the beginning of a sentence, the subject and verb are also
inverted
- Hardly ever does he take times off.
- Rarely were they so happy
-Only in extremely dangerous situations will the
printing presses be stopped.
When a negative expression appears in front of a subject and verb in the middle,
the subject and verb also inverted, this happens often with neither and nor.
•I do not want to go, and neither does Tom
•The secretary is not attending the meeting, nor is her boss
 4. WITH CONDITIONALS
Inversion may occur when helping verb in the conditional clause is
(had, should, or were) and the conditional connector “if” is omitted.

1. I would help you if I were in a position to help.

I would help you were I in a position to help.
2. If you should arrive before 6:00, just give me a call
Should you arrive before 6:00, just give me a call
3. If he had taken more time, the results would have been better
Had he taken more time, the results would have been better

It is also possible to keep if. Then the subject and verb are not
inverted
a. If he were here, he would help.
b. If your friends come to visit, will they stay in a hotel?
 5. WITH COMPARISON
Inversion in this method is optional
1. My sister spends more hours in the office than John.

2. My sister spends more hours in the office than John does.

3. My sister spends more hours in the office than does John.

Ex: The results of the experiment appear to be more

consistent than……..the results of any previous tests
a. Themc. they were
b. were d. were they