Inversion / Practice English with Paul

my friends and welcome to practice English with Paul today we are going to focus on some relatively advanced grammar yes it is inversion now this video is quite special because on the social networking site for contacts here I had a poll on my wall and I asked people what they would like me to do a video about inversion passives modal verbs articles and people chose inversion so that's why I'm doing it for you now what is inversion well I'm going to explain in a minute but let me start with an example so imagine you're in a CAE exam writing a review and you're trying to review a film you're trying to kind of make people interested in what you're writing you know to add some color as you say Brad Pitt stars in this film and he directs this film the English is correct but it's really basic it's not really colorful it doesn't emphasize anything now if you say not only does Brad Pitt star in this film but he also directs it that is really simple English but it's inversion it's emphatically emphasis and it makes your range of grammar looks so much better it has a very good effect on the target reader because you're catching my interest or oh wow and that's what this inversion is about now let's get on with it and have a look at all the various parts starting with this now I'm going to split the video into two parts the first part will be auxilary have B inversion and the second part of the video will be your main verb inversion because they're quite different so what is inversion very simple emphasis do you know what the word emphasis means to emphasize two because on something to to concentrate on something to to make something bigger to stress it that's emphasis and it's very important that we learn how to do this correctly inversion is usually form is usually literary so you'll find it in a lot of kind of fictional literature it is so it's usually written of course but you will sometimes find it in spoke in English adverbial phrases can be spoken you might know the basic English for agreement like so do I so was i pre intermediate you English file you will find that in even when you use the word may for a wish may you be happy for the rest of your life this is inversion so it really adds color it's really really good grammar now let's start off with the basic so if you're not up for intermediate or advanced maybe your pre intermediate or intermediate let's have a look at the basics first you know that word order in English is very very important now I know in Russian you can put your words pretty much where you like not in English you kind when we ask questions in most tenses we change the subject and the auxiliary like here have you visited London not you have visited London for a question we change this around now one small point I want you to remember my friends this does not happen in indirect speech reported speech this is a common mistake among students all around the world look at my last example I want to know what time does the film start that is wrong because it's reported we take out the does now I will do a special video on reported questions and I will explain this a bit more but the correct English I want to know what time that film starts not what time does the film start it sounds really bad to my ears so that's the basic simple subject-auxiliary inversion let's have a look at some areas of this okay so my friends here we have inversion as exclamations and these are used in negative forms as you can see my auxiliaries are negative here isn't wasn't haven't don't and you can see question marks at the end it's interesting because they're exclamations but they're in the form of questions this is how English gets a bit complicated now here I can say in normal English my first example it is a wonderful day today that's correct English but it's not emphatically stressing anything if I want to make it really emphatic I can say isn't it a wonderful day today oh absolutely definitely of course second example I can say in normal English without stress without emphasis it was a great restaurant fine okay but I want to stress it wasn't in a great restaurant sure it was amazing a third one I can say to a child wow I haven't seen you in ages you have grown so much now I can say to add color to this that's because I'm surprised last time she was tiny now she's a really sort of grown up girl I can add emphasis by inversion well haven't you grown up a lot unbelievable the last one I can say wow you have a huge house again fine correct English inversion makes it that little bit more colourful well don't you have a huge house good lord amazing see how it works is actually very very simple and notice my intonation in my voice it goes up it really changes because I'm stressing it when you have inversion you need to stress it not just with your grammar but with your intonation too let's move on to the next video so my friends here we are at the next section we can use the modal verb may in inversion remember may is an auxilary all modal verbs are auxiliaries with meaning unlike the other ones now we can use me to express wishes and blessings if you are a fan of the film Star Wars and you've seen it in English you will have heard this many times may the force be with you it's expressing a wish I like saying I hope the force will be with you again I hope the force will be with you correct English but not very emphatic inversion does that may the force be with you it sounds formal and it sounds colorful now similarly if you are a fan of Star Trek you'll know that Spock the Vulcan who does this thing with his fingers and has pointy ears he says may you live long and prosper it's much better than saying I hope you live a long time and you prosper very well again correct English but not emphatic this is it sounds formal and it sounds nice last one like a blessing imagine a man and woman get married and the best man says I hope that you both live happily together nice very nice but to make it more emphatic deeper we use the inversion may you both live together happily or maybe both live happily together simple isn't it is really really easy now let's go to the next section so my friends here we are at the next part of the video in version with so neither/nor now if you have studied a new English file pre-intermediate near the end of the book you will have learned this and it is very very common very useful and very emotional especially in that unit in pre intermediate English file now we have I am happy here is my auxilary am one my linking book and we have my answer to show that I agree I am happy so am i I was my linking verb in the past I was a woman but now I am a man I was a woman so was I I have my negatives I'm not dead neither am i or nor am i I haven't kissed a babushka above bushka is a Russian word for an old lady they're very special I haven't kissed the babushka neither have I yet now if I want to make this more emotional I can use my intonation here I'm happy so am i I was woman so was i I'm not dead neither am i I haven't kissed a babushka nor have I yet now instead of saying this because I teach this to my students that you don't have to say so am I so was I so will I so have I so have I etc etc you can say me too for everything you can't make a mistake but you you need to make this like you need to stress this I'm more emotional I'm happy me too I was woman me too you know it's not in version here but I'm just telling you there is an alternative and they're saying it me - me neither for your negatives so that's that part I'm is really simple if you want to practice this there is practice on this again new English file pre-intermediate third edition at the back of the book there is some practice or if you can get hold of the teachers there is a lot of practice at the back there as well okay right there's even more to do so my friends here we go to the next one in the series of inversion here we have inversion after ad than and so now this is actually quite formal literary style this is something that will be fantastic in your essays if you're reading some heavy literature you will definitely see this here what I have done I have got the formal inverted forms in blue and I've given you some more natural alternatives in red to inversion okay now these examples here are not spoken they are written the first one we have Palmas feeling positive as were his students were is now in front of his students it's inverted not his students were but noticed to make it sort of more to the natural informal English I can say Paul was feeling positive like his students were so I put word yes oh it's not inverted his students were so I've changed it next one we have then Russians are more superstitious than none of the English to my ears it sounds so it sounds so formal to the point of being ridiculous so in natural spoken English Russians or even written English Russians are more superstitious than the English are so I've not inverted it I've kept it in its normal subject verb structure the last one we have so which usually is plus that I underlined in green so difficult was the test that I think I failed and you would never say this in all spoken English if you're watching Downton Abbey or poro or something old-fashioned you might hear it but not in modern English you'll definitely see it written again to give an alternative so difficult was the test the test was so difficult that I think I failed now there is one sort of benefit to this I have written these examples in red to make it sort of a bit more from the meaning is exactly the same not as emphatic formal literary style I've taken that away by writing the alternatives in red however if you are doing FCE CAE cpe sentence transformation this will be very useful because you have to play with your word order so it's very important to pay attention to they could ask you about this in the exam alright so I hope that bit was useful there's more let's do it so my friends here we are at the next section conditionals yes even conditionals suffer inversion when conditionals are inverted it adds a very special touch and let's have a look a if you see her say hello much buying quite direct inverted with the modal verb should you see her say hello now by using this modal verb shirts in inversion it really makes it more emphatic like you know more emotional and more polite it creates distance now a lot more distance it's like if you've studied conditionals before and if you say if I asked for your phone number would you give it to me and you say if I were to ask for your phone number would you give it to me to add distance and this is another way of adding distance and it makes it more polite second one be if he were my friend I would kick him standard conditional sentence inversion were he my friend so the word replaces the if were he my friend I would kick him not very common in spoken English now if you believe that this is common in spoken English please tell me because I've never heard it from someone's mouth I'll be very happy to know but generally you will see this in some written English maybe it's a bit old-fashioned but it does exist the next one if I had understood what you meant I would have blah blah blah again pay attention if I had understood what you did mean no no no no no no remember the beginning of the video if I had understood what you meant I would have blah blah blah we can put had at the beginning had I understood what she meant I would have blah blah blah blah by saying had at the beginning it makes it much more formal it makes it a bit more sort of emphatic in sort of literary style is not something you would often hear in spoken English if you did hear this in spoken English then it would be creating huge distance Oh had I known what you meant I wouldn't have kicked your cat I'm so sorry not so common it's sort of too polite if that makes any sense but here yeah as you can see inversion works in conditionals and again sentence transformation in your Cambridge exams you could be asked something like this it's very simple grammar a high-level you will need to know this especially CAE learn it ok let's move on to the next one so my friends and here we are at the last part of the first section with our auxiliaries in inversion now these are inversion with adverbial expressions like under no circumstances at no time etc the thing is you must learn these by heart basically it works as you have your expression plus your auxiliary and your subject it's as simple as that now some of these expressions are sort of very emphatic you'll only find in sort of literature style I think maybe two or three of them can be used in spoken English I will tell you which ones are as we go along so let's start with the first one under no circumstances should you lick a plug socket I don't know why you would licker plug socket but I'm telling you under no circumstances should you because this adverbial expression is very strong it is really strong having inversion makes it stronger under no circumstances should you be late for school under no circumstances can you kick that dot because it's not nice now the next one at no time meaning like not at all ever at no time was I aware of any drugs in my car so very colorful maybe it's not something you would use in spoken English very often again you will see this in literature like written English next one definitely written English not until much later did we decide to try eating frogs yes I definitely wouldn't say this in spoken English unless I was telling story again not until much later did we decide to try it in frogs if I say this in spoken English without an inversion let's try it nothing till much later we decided now it doesn't work even in spoken English it doesn't work these all these adverbials just automatically take inversion and for me as an Englishman I'm used to this structure again hardly could be in spoken English if you really are trying to stress something to kind of speak like a book I suppose hardly how do I woken up when the noise started the next one seldom really we can use this in spoken English as well as within English rarely have I kissed a woman if I use this in spoken English it is very colorful it is very sort of emphatic like a kind of Shakespearean actor you might hear it the next one quite common in spoken English little did we know that it's like a whole expression okay little did we know that it was going to rain little did we inversion little did we know that it was going to rain next one if I'm telling a story this will be very common only then did I make the decision to run so for example I was walking down the street and I saw some really tough criminals they pulled out a gun and only then that I decided to make a run for it yeah it works next one only after only after her birth did I become a real man quite colorful literary style not really in spoken English the last one yes can be in spoken English definitely written English my CAE teenager student Tanya this one is for you because you used it in almost every essay but I loved it anyway not only did Brad Pitt star in the film but he also directed it like the example earlier now that is the end of inversion for the first part now we're going to the second part to look at in version where main verbs next part is quite short quite literary but interesting let's have a look so my friends welcome back to the second part of inversion now we're going to invert main verbs not auxiliaries let's have a look at this the talk about inversion in descriptive writing so again you're talking about or literature this is not common at all in spoken English I even don't think you'd ever use such a structures in your CAE SAS I'm not sure about CBE but if you decided to write a book this will be fantastic now what we do we take our verb and we put it in front of our subject however the verb needs to be intransitive only works with intransitive verbs plus if we have expression of place or direction here are these examples in front of my desk stood tall attractive woman that just sounds so colorful so literary to understand what I mean it just would not occur in spoken English and spoken English it would sound like this at all attractive woman stood in front of my desk we completely changed the structure of the sentence but because of the descriptive writing we're using inversion to make it emphatic to emphasize it as I said at the beginning the next one over the junction drove three super sports cars sounds really like colorful emotional descriptive normal English three super sport cars drove over the junction that would be standard but here again we want to emphasize it using a version recipe for success the last one below the street flowed natural spring water now if I'm sort of talking in let's say a documentary then this wouldn't be right because this is descriptive if I was like doing say like a Discovery Channel documentary I would say natural spring water flow below this street many years ago fine standard but descriptive writing inversion gives that gives us that special it makes its emotional colorful below the street float natural spring water even listen to how I say that sentence now that's the first part done that's some ideas on descriptive writing very very specific very very specific I don't think you'll find any practice on this in any textbook but maybe in the future I'll make some practice myself right the next part let's do it so my friends here we are and we have inversion finally informal speech inversion we can use in our spoken English and this is very very common indeed when we have here or there at the beginning of our sentences we can invert for example oh look here comes the bus now I can say oh look the bus is coming I can say that no problem if I want to give some surprise to emphasize the fact that the bus is coming I can invert oh look here comes the bus at last right here there goes my money my wife is shopping so imagine I'm in a supermarket and I see my wife shopping sorry that this is a bit sexist but well it's grammar my wife is shopping there goes my money that's it really emphatic really colorful emotional here comes the train at last very common last one imagine I am giving the tour around a part of London I can say so people here stood an old castle many many years ago it really adds a nice bit of color to that that's past it but that's it there's nothing more to say where this is concerned very very simple you can actually learn these phrases by heart and you don't really need to learn many more that would probably be enough to begin with now we have one section war let's do it so my friends here we are at the very last section and this is probably the easiest part to be honest this is inversion in reported storytelling so if you are reading a book without a dialogue you will see this is something that you see all the time but you probably haven't thought about why it's like that I hate you said Paul not Paul said it's inverted you smell explain Sara not you smell Sara exclaimed doesn't work get out of my face shouted the policeman very very common however be careful but I hate you said he that's wrong I hate you he said when we have a pronoun we do not invert that's the only term and in fact in the previous example with here and there it's the same principle if you have a pronoun you don't invert ok now that's basically it there is nothing really more to say here is really really simple it's basic this is even pre-intermediate English if not even earlier now unfortunately the inversion is not such a big theme in English if you look at most textbooks you probably really only see this at advanced level maybe up for intermediate if you're lucky I've never really come across much practice on this I tend to make my own examples for my students with some of the effects that verbal expressions to use it essays and some in spoke in English like me too or so so that I so was I so online etcetera etc however there is a book which I strongly recommend you to buy it is called Oxford English grammar course by Michael Swann and if the pages are 258 and 259 there are some exercises there on inversion so it's something it's better than nothing Michael Swan is my hero when it comes to grammar books because no one explains it as well as this guy his book seriously on my Bible so that concludes our grammar lesson on inversion I hope it was interesting I hope it was useful I hope now you understand how inversion works you can make your English a bit more colorful it will help you in your writing in some parts of your spoken English to make your English a little bit more natural just try try playing with it use my examples give use your own examples based on my models and I would love to know how it goes write some comments if you have some problems I will try to answer as soon as I can so my friends have a wonderful evening please subscribe please give me a thumbs up for this it's taking me hours to prepare I am going to bed now thank God have a wonderful evening or morning where and wherever you are in the world and have fun learned English goodbye my friends

Channel: Practice English with Paul

Views: 90,494

Keywords: inversion, exclamation, reported speech, may, conditionals, 'inversion: exclamation', 'inversion exclamation', inversion: may, 'inversion may', inversion: so/neither/nor, inversion after as/than/so, inversion: conditionals, inversion: adverbial expressions, inversion: descriptive writing, 'inversion in reported story telling', inversion in reported story telling

Id: FrypQ3FjDZw

Length: 28min 49sec (1729 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 27 2015