Inverzija posle priloga sa negativnim značenjem

U engleskom jeziku se izrazi sa ograničavajućim ili negativnim značenjem često stavljaju na početak rečenice. Razlog za to je naglašavanje onoga što želimo da kažemo, nešto što je neobično, originalno, iznenađujuće. Kada se upotrebe u rečenici, sa ovim izrazima upotrebljavamo inverziju:

• 'Only at night do bats leave their cave.'
• 'Only after I had returned home did I realize that I had left my watch in Emma's bathroom.'

Posle konstrukcije not only ... but also

• Not only did we visit Cuba's capital, Havana, (but) we also spent three days exploring the Galapagos Islands off the coast of Ecuador.'

Inverzija se takođe upotrebljava u izrazima koji sadrže rečcu 'no' kada se nalaze na početku rečenice:

• 'Under no circumstances are you (allowed) to walk home from school alone.'
• 'In no way will I agree to sharing an office with Ben.

Isto pravilo važi za 'seldom', 'hardly', 'scarcely', 'rarely', 'never', 'never before' i 'no sooner'

• Never before had I seen such realistic dinosaurs as there were in the BBC television series.' (This is a reference to a recent BBC series. If you want to know more have a look at the web site - Walking with Dinosaurs.)
• 'No sooner had I arrived at the station than the train came in.'
• 'Rarely do we see such brightly-coloured birds.'
• 'Seldom do we walk on such green grass.'
• 'Scarcely had we finished lunch when the bell rang for afternoon classes.

Ali, ako rečenica ne treba da ima taj element iznenađenja ili naglašavanja, treba je reći bez inverzije:

• 'We had scarcely finished lunch when the bell rang for afternoon classes.