Inversiunea în limba engleză este folosită în următoarele cazuri:

I. DUPĂ ADVERBE NEGATIVE

1.expresii de timp: rarely, seldom, never

Never have I tasted such a delicious cake.
Rarely had I heard such a piece of impoliteness.
Seldom can a man have seen such a great disaster.

ATENȚIE: se folosesc în special cu present perfect, past perfect, can și could și deseori conțin o formă de comparativ.

2. expresii de timp: hardly, scarcely, barely, no sooner

Hardly/ Scarcely/ Barely had I entered the house when the phone rang.
No sooner had I started reading than my sister came home.

ATENȚIE: se referă la o acțiune care are loc imediat după o altă acțiune din trecut. Se folosesc de obicei cu past perfect , deși no sooner poate fi urmat și de past tense.

hardly/ scarcely/ barely …… when

no sooner …… than

3. după only, only if, only when, only later, only then:

Only after seeing him did I realize that I had met him before.

Only later did I remember to ring her up.

ATENȚIE: când only are sens de „unul, una, singurul, singura”, nu apare inversiune

Only Tom could read French.

4. după fraze care includ o negație ( no/not): on no condition, under no circumstances, on no account, at no time, in no way, not until, not only… but also

Under  no circumstances is the personnel  to leave earlier.

On no account will the late arrivals be admitted to the conference hall.

5. după little (are un sens negativ sau restrictiv)

Little does she know about the departure.

II. DUPĂ „SO” ȘI „SUCH”, URMATE „THAT”

So și such sunt foloste cu verbul to be pentru a accentua ideea.

So devastating was the storm that many roofs were ripped off.

Such was the film that we wanted to see it again.

Such are sensul de so great.

II. ÎN PROPOZIȚII CONDIȚIONALE, CÂND SE RENUNȚĂ LA CONJUNCȚIA „IF”

Were they to join, there would be much joy.

Should he come, I would wait for him at the station.

Had I known, I would have prepared better for the party.