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Practise with a grammar game

Inversion involves putting an auxiliary verb before the subject of a clause. We do this in a number of different situations:

Questions

The most common use of inversion is in the forming of questions. We use the auxiliary verbs be (for progressive and passive forms), have (for perfect forms) and do (for most other forms). Modal verbs can also be inverted to form questions:

			Were they ready when you arrived?
			Where was it made?
			Have you ever visited France?
			Where do you live?
			What should we do now?

http://www.ucl.ac.uk/internet-grammar/function/subjinv.htm

Negative and restrictive adverbs

In formal English, it is quite common to use inversion after negative adverbial expressions and restrictive words such as only, never, hardly and little.

			At no time did he get permission for what he was doing.
			Not until the next morning did she realise how serious it was.
			Only later did they learn his terrible secret.
			Never before have I seen such awful behaviour.
			Hardly had we walked in the door when the phone started ringing.
			Little do you know how much trouble you are in.

http://www3.telus.net/linguisticsissues/Inversion.htm

http://www.edufind.com/english/grammar/ADVERBS7.cfm

So, nor and neither

Inversion is common when using these words to expression agreement or disagreement.

			I'm from Turkey. So am I.
			I don't like monsters! Nor/Neither do I.

Conditional clauses

In formal English, the if clause in conditional sentences can be rephrased through inversion:

			Were you to win the election, what's the first thing you'd do? = If you won the election …
			Had we known what the weather would be like, we wouldn't have come = If we had known what …

May

When we are making wishes, we can use inversion:

May you both live happily ever after!

Exclamations

We can use inversion to make exclamations:

			Aren't you a silly girl!
			Isn't it a lovely day!

For a quiz on inversion, see the following web site:

Quizzes

http://www.cityu.edu.hk/elc/quiz/inverse.htm