Discussions
Back to Discussions

Question about negative inversion

Consistent-Kiwi5684
I've recently learned in my linguistic class about inversion used with negative adverbs but it still sounds a bit odd to me (except for well known ways of saying like "Little did he know" or similar, which comes natural to me by now) I was wondering how common negative inversion is in daily language, written or spoken, since I don't hear it very often. Also, is it considered a mistake if I use a negative adverb at the beginning of a sentence without the inversion? For example: "Not only she excels in mathematics, but also in English" instead of "Not only does she excel..." or "No way he said that" instead of "No way did he say that" I hope I explained myself! The structure is pretty clear, I just don't understand when I should use it or if it's considered a grammar mistake if I don't. Also feel free to add more examples or more cases where inversion is used, I love learning more about advanced English, especially now that I'm trying to "level up" XD

3 comments

TheCloudForest•
"How common/how often" questions are really hard to answer. We don't have this stuff quantified, and even if we did, the number would mean nothing. In everyday conversation, these structures are *relatively* uncommon, but not super rare. Some are rarer than others. "Seldom does she cook" sounds pretty darn odd. They are more common in literary/journalistic writing, scripted or semi-scripted presentations and speeches, and - this may seem paradoxical - also used in sort of effusive, dramatic informal storytelling. Something like "Never before had I seen such a mess!"
TheCloudForest•
Also, > For example: "Not only she excels in mathematics, but also in English" This isn't correct. The non-inverted option is: "She not only excels in mathematics, but also in English" or "She excels not only in mathematics, but also English".
Fractured-disk•
I use it a lot and I know people I grew up with who use it a lot too