Page 138 - Basic English Usage

185 138

if
Ina formal style, had/..., hadhe ... etc can be used instead of if
lhad ...,ifhehad ... etc.
Had I known what was going to happen, | would have warned you.
( = If} had known ...)
neither, nor, so (see 217; 312)
These words are followed by | auxiliary verb + subject |.
‘I'm hungry.’ ‘Soam 1.’
‘I don't like Mozart.’ ‘Neither/Nor do 1.’

Negative adverbial expressions
in a formal style, we may put a negative adverb or adverb phrase at the
beginning of a clause. The order is

| negative adverb (phrase) + auxiliary + subject + verb |.

Under no circumstances can we accept cheques.
Hardly had I arrived when trouble started.

only
The same thing happens with expressions containing only.
Only then did I understand what she meant.
Not only did we lose our money, but we were also in danger of losing
our lives,

Exclamations
Exclamations often have the same structure as negative questions (see
120.3).
Isn’titcold! Hasn’t she got lovely eyes!

185 inversion: whole verb before subject

here, there etc
If we begin a sentence with here or there, we put the whole verb before
the subject, if this is a noun.
Here comes Mrs Foster. (NOT Here-Mrs-Foster- comes.)
There goes your brother.
lf the subject is a pronoun, it comes before the verb.
Here shecomes. There he goes.
This structure is possible with some other short adverbs like down, up.
So | stopped the car, and up walked a policeman.