Study the following rules

Inversion is a way of reversing the usual or expected word order to bring emphasis to a sentence, to make it more negative, to make it stronger, more dramatic. Compare these two sentences:

Students have never had such challenging opportunities.
Never have students had such challenging opportunities!

You can see the effect of inverting the subject/verb and bringing the frequency adverb to the start of the sentence. Here are some similar examples.

Rarely had he been spoken to in such a way.
Never had he known about the child and it was a huge shock to him.

· Time expressions with negative meaning: never, rarely, seldom

These time expressions are used with a perfect form or with modals and often include comparatives:

Never have I been more insulted!
Seldom has he seen anything stranger.

· Time expressions: hardly, barely, no sooner, or scarcely

These time expressions are used when there is a succession of events in the past. Hardly (the most usual), scarcely and barely go with the past perfect tense. No sooner may also be used with other tenses, but never for actions that will take place in the future.

You cannot therefore say: No sooner do I see her, I will invite her to my birthday party.

Examples Scarcely had we started to watch the film when the light went off.
No sooner had the teacher finished the lesson when Ann walked in the classroom.

· After 'Only' Expressions such as 'only after', 'only when', 'only then', etc.

'Only' is used with a time expression.

Examples Only then did I understand the problem.

Only after understanding the situation does the teacher make a comment.

· Inversion after 'So' and 'Such'

'So'

'So + adjective... that' combines with the verb 'to be'.

Examples So strange was the situation that I couldn't say anything.

So difficult is the test that students need three months to prepare.

'Such'

'Such + to be + noun... (that)':

Examples Such is the moment that all greats traverse.
Such is the stuff of dreams.

· Inverted Conditional Forms

Sometimes conditional forms are inverted as a means of sounding more formal. In this case, the conditional 'if ' is dropped and the inverted forms takes the place of the 'if clause'.

Example Had he understood the problem, he wouldn't have committed those mistakes.

Note: Be careful not to use inversion too much. Its use has a very special meaning, either to formalise or dramatise statements. Its overuse, particularly in conversation, is not advised.

1. Complete the second sentence so that it has a similar meaning to the first sentence, using the word given.

1. He became aware of these cultural differences after the discussion.

ONLY THEN _________________________________________.

2. She had scarcely begun to write her answer when the bell rang.

SCARCELY __________________________________________.

3. They had hardly arrived from their internship when state examinations began.

HARDLY ____________________________________________.

4. Immediately he learnt about the deadline for the project work, he started information search.

NO SOONER ____________________________________________.

5. He was so excited after he got his examination results.

SUCH ___________________________________________________.

6. If we had known that you were interested in this project, we would have informed you. HAD ____________________________________________________.

7. If you were to choose a new profession, what would you choose to be?

WERE ___________________________________________________.

8. If they had confessed everything, they would have been expelled from school.

HAD _____________________________________________________.

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