Inversion with so, such and as - exercises

Here are a couple of exercises on inversion with so, such and as, and a rather nerdy discussion of inversion after than. You can find out much more about inversion, and about why we use inversion and fronting, at a rather longer post I wrote recently (link below).

Fronting exercises (with a bit of subject-verb inversion)

These ten exercises are intended to give students some pretty intensive practice in fronting. They cover the more common forms of fronting, and include basic instructions on how it is done. For more detail on how they are formed and why we use fronting you could have a look at my post on 'Exploring Inversion and fronting' (link at the bottom).

Exploring inversion and fronting

Inversion

This involves reversing the position of the subject and an auxiliary, or sometimes the subject and the whole verb. You'll be familiar with the idea from question forms and question tags, where we swap or switch (exchange) the subject and auxiliary (including modals), or the verb be. You'll also know such inverted expressions as 'so do I' and 'neither do I'.

You probably also know a bit about inversion with negative and limiting adverbials, and that we can sometimes invert conditionals.

Fronting

This means putting a word or expression which normally comes later to the front of the sentence, before the subject. This could be, for example, an adverbial or adjectival expression, a noun phrase or clause, or even a verb.

The purpose of this post

This post is not intended to be an introduction to inversion and fronting, but rather an exploration of all the different patterns of inversion and fronting I can find, with lots of (I hope natural-sounding) examples. If you are specifically looking for information about negative inversion or inverting conditionals, or about question tags and short answers, you might be better looking at one of my other posts, linked to at the bottom of this post.

Looking for exercises?

As this post is already rather long I'm not including any exercises here, but will link instead to other posts with exercises, as and when I've written them. You can find links at the end of this post to exercises on negative inversion, inversion in conditionals, inversion in tag questions and short answers, and fronting (including some subject-verb inversion)

A strange example of negative inversion

I've just spotted a rather strange example of negative inversion in today's Guardian. Commenting on the fact that Google Maps Russia now shows Crimea as part of Russia, the writer says:

the Guardian

The bit we're interested in is this:

• In no uncertain terms is the area marked as a separate country from wider Ukraine.

Inversion in Conditionals

Image made with Wordle

There's not an awful lot on the Internet or in grammar books on the inversion of conditionals, so I thought I'd take quite a detailed look at it, with plenty of exercises.

This post consists of:

• Four introductory exercises
• The basic principles
• First conditional - exercise
• Second conditional - exercise
• Third conditional - exercise
• Inverting negatives
• Mixed conditionals
• If it wasn't/weren't/hadn't been for ... - exercise
• Bringing it all together - exercise
• Should - advanced point - aspect
• How do we know when we can invert in real tense conditionals?
• Exceptions - should, have and were to have done

Should you find the introductory exercises too difficult, or would prefer to go straight the explanation, you can skip (miss out) the first section.

Negative inversion - practice exercises

Here are some exercises on negative inversion, as promised rather a long time ago.

If you need to revise the basic principles, I suggest you look at my post
Making sense of negative inversion. Hopefully!

Making sense of negative inversion. Hopefully!

Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.

Winston Churchill, in tribute to the fighter-pilots of the Battle of Britain

This is one of the best-known examples of negative inversion in the English Language. And if you're into effective speaking, you'll also notice an example of tripling.

Certificate exams often have a question concerning inversion with negative adverbials, often simply referred to as negative inversion. Students can have problems with these constructions, and for this reason at least one teacher (see link at the end) has publicly wondered if it's worth all the bother, especially as you can speak perfect English without ever using a negative inversion.

But we all like a challenge, don't we? Both you as a student and me as a teacher, so let's have a shot at mastering the little bugger, by taking it nice and slowly. It's only a technique after all; there's no interpretation involved, it's not like choosing verb tenses for example. If you can ask a question, you can do negative inversion. Well, more or less.

There's quite a lot to get through, so get yourself a nice cup of coffee, and when you're sitting comfortably, we'll begin.

If you just want some practice without a lesson, you can try these practice exercises.