Lesson 1 - Grammar - DREAMS
Inversion for emphasis
Look at these two examples:
I will never go there. and Never will I go there.
If you want to emphasize something you can put negative adverbs or adverbial phrases at the beginning of the sentences. The examples of such adverbs are the following: hardly, hardly ever, never, scarcely, rarely, seldom. In these sentences you use inversion. Remember about auxiliery verbs.You can also use expressions with only such as, only after, only when, only if, not only. All these structures are formal and are used in written English.
Now look at the following examples: I hardly ever go to the restaurant. And Hardly ever do I go to the restaurant. To emphasize something you can use the structure of a question.
Exercise 3. Change the following sentences into more emphatic structures: 1. I hardly ever drink gin. 2. I seldom saw such a remarkable creature. 3. I never felt better. 4. Only after a year I began to see the results of my work. 5. Only in a few countries the whole of the population enjoys a reasonable standard of living. 6. Not only we lost all our money, but we also came close to losing our lives. 7. In no way she can be held responsible. 8. I seldom make long distance phone calls to the USA.
Answers: 1.Hardly do I ever drink gin. 2. Seldom did I see …. 3. Never did I feel better. 4. Only after a year did I begin to see….. 5. Only in a few countries does the whole of the population enjoy ..… 6. Not only did we lose …. 7. In no way can she be …… 8. Seldom do I make long distance ….
