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Improve your English speaking skills with INVERSION!

Good afternoon, everyone. The Prime Minister Joris Bonson will be here shortly. Yes? - Happy birthday, Tom. Nigel Peestain here from Daily Post. Can we confirm that the Prime Minister did send his balls to a woman who’s not his wife? - Sir, to clarify, he did not send his balls. He was hacked. - And also can we confirm– - Should you have any questions, just raise your hand and he’ll call on you. Oh, here he is now, the Prime Minister Joris Bonson.

-Thank you. I’d like to begin by thanking you all for coming. As you may have heard, photos of my private parts were sent by a third party through my Facebook account to a woman. I’d like to make one thing absolutely clear, not once, have I ever sent photos, videos, or any digital media of my balls to anyone.

Yes? - Nigel Peestain, Daily Post. Are we to believe that you were hacked? - Yes, yes indeed. That’s exactly what I’m saying. I was hacked. Yes, in fact no sooner had I found out that I had been hacked then I tore up my little password paper, that’s next to my laptop and changed my Facebook password. In fact, I’d like to thank my assistant, Tom, for bringing to my attention that my private photos were being sold to the press. In fact, when he found out, he came over and told me, “Listen, you’ve got to stop sending any more.” He stopped it. Yes, you?

-Yes, Dawn Garrity, Zorra News. What is “Password Paper”? - Oh yes, password paper. Yes, I write my password on very, very small, very tiny little piece of paper. It’s a numerical code, very cryptic. It’s very safe. -What was it then, your birthday? - No, no, no, don’t be ridiculous. No, it’s his birthday. I do the same thing with the code to my safe at home. Not once in my life has that been robbed. - And is that code his birthday too? - No, come on, let’s not be silly here. Let’s not be silly dickens. No, that one’s my birthday. -Awe! - Look, more important than any of that right now is that out there. there are photos of my private balls. In fact, Tom told me I couldn’t trust her.

Next, yes, you. - Prime Minister, why did you take pictures of your balls? -Oh really, what is it with these silly questions? Well obviously it’s my mother. She’s probably sick, wasn’t she? - [Tom] It was medical. - She’s medicine. - It was medical. - It’s medical reasons. Next, you. - Under no circumstances should a prime minister be uploading pictures of his testicles online? In no way do we the public find this acceptable? - No, nor should you, sir, nor should you. No, in fact not only have I switched all my passwords now but from now on I’ll be writing all of my passwords on much smaller, much tinier bits of paper. Now should you have any further questions please direct them to my very capable assistant, Tom. - Actually I quit. - [Dick] Happy birthday. - Thanks.

If you want to speak more formally, dramatically, or just emphatically, then you need inversion. And today I’m going to show you some fun and actually useful ways that you will use inversion in your everyday English. Inversion is actually super easy. It just means putting an auxiliary or a modal verb before the subject. And actually if you have ever asked a question, you already know how to do that. Okay, let’s try this example. Would you go to a dangerous place alone? My answer is, never. If I want to be dramatic or formal or emphatic with my answer, I can use inversion. We’ll keep this question form, that’s good, but that adverb, we’ll put that at the beginning so, it reads like this: Never would I, this is my answer, never would I go to a dangerous area alone. Now it’s not a question. Now it’s a statement. I’m being dramatic, formal, or emphatic. This is inversion. Now you know how it works. Congratulations, I’ll see you in the next class.

Oh, sorry, did you want more examples? Yeah, I can do that. I can do that, sure. Okay, this next one, let’s do it together. Work with me here. Let’s imagine you meet someone and you want to emphasize, wow. I don’t often meet really fun people but you’re cool, you’re cool. You can emphasize this, using inversion. Remember we’ll take that adverb, put it at the front. That auxiliary verb or modal verb, that comes before the subject. So that has been moved, right? So you can say wow, you are so cool. I mean no often do I meet really fun people. You see, it just sounds more emphatic this way.

Also notice that the adverbs we used, never, not often, these are negative adverbial phrases and frequency adverbs. So we don’t use the positive adverbs. For example this, if I want to say, but yeah, often do I meet really fun people. That doesn’t sound good. No positive adverbs here. If this is confusing, don’t worry. I have so many examples. You are going to be so bored but you’ll understand inversion perfectly, don’t worry. So another example. Again, you want to be dramatic or emphatic.

Okay, a boyfriend and girlfriend, the guy feels insecure or whatever and he asks have you ever cheated on me? And she wants to emphasize that no, never, not once. That’s our negative adverb, right? Next again, it keeps that question form but it’s not a question, it’s a statement now. Can we use ever here? Yeah, that adds to the drama. It adds to the emphasis. Not once have I ever cheated on you. You see how emphatic that sounds? That sounds so much more emphatic than just, have you ever cheated on me? No. So I mean if you’re writing a soap opera, inversion’s brilliant.

In a casual, normal conversation, oh Maria, I hardly ever speak to Maria, that sounds casual. But if you want to emphasize this, if you want to be dramatic, you can use inversion. Quick test, you know what? Pause the video. Write your answer. Then play the video when you’re ready. Okay, let’s do this together. We’re putting the adverb at the beginning and then which auxiliary verb? Remember, this is present simple, so do. Subject, it’s the same. Hardly ever do I speak to Maria. It’s always Maria. Question for you. Which one word means hardly ever? Rarely. Pronunciation, I know it’s difficult. Say it with me, rarely, rarely. British English, rarely. American English, rarely.

An example using rarely could be… What do we change? What else changes? Again, you’re sounding more emphatic. Rarely do I go to the gym. I feel like you understand how the form works now. Now you need to learn some fixed expressions that we often use with inversion. For example, you want to say, absolutely no way to a situation. We have an expression for this, under no circumstances. Under no circumstances just means there is no situation, there’s no condition that this is acceptable or possible, absolutely not, no way.

Okay, so you go to a job interview and they say okay, for this job we need you to work for free so would you work for free? You want to say, no way, hell no, no way. Now under no circumstances, that’s a more formal way to say, hell no. How do we use inversion with this? Under no circumstances would I work for free. A less formal version of under no circumstances is no way in hell. Example, you see a haunted building, full of ghosts. Your friend asks you, would you go inside? You want to say never, that will never happen. Absolutely no way. Use that expression. No way in hell would I go inside. You’re emphasizing, absolutely not, that would never happen.

Similar to that is the expression in no way. This also means it’s impossible. It’s not going to happen. This one, it’s not formal. It’s not informal. It’s quite neutral. One time I was in a restaurant and they served live octopus. And I thought, could I eat a live octopus? No way, absolutely not, no. So we’ll use, in no way. It’s not a question, it’s a statement. In no way could I eat a live octopus, no. I know in some places you do it but I want to know from you in the comments. Could you eat a live octopus? We have quite a few expressions that we use with inversion. Here’s another one. Okay, this boyfriend and girlfriend are arguing and he wants to say, you never do anything for me. And she wants to say oh really? Well two things. I paid for your bicep implants and I bought you those jeans. So, she can make this sound more formal and more emphatic by adding, not only first thing, but also another thing. Again this is inversion so we need to swap some things around. This sentence, we will invert. Remember it’s that question form again so not only. We’re dealing with past tense now. Now we’re getting a bit more difficult. Past simple, hmm, what’s the question? Did. Not only did I pay. Not only did I pay for your bicep implants but also I bought you those jeans. Okay, so you notice this one, this one doesn’t change. Only that one changes. Oh really, not only did I pay for your bicep implants but I also bought those jeans. So when you want to say that you did multiple things in a dramatic, emphatic, or formal way, inversion, inversion.

Okay, quick test for you. You want to eat pizza but you need to convince yourself that you deserve it. I mean you always deserve it. You always deserve pizza but… should I have pizza today? Have I been healthy this week? So you make a list. What have you done that’s healthy? I’ve been to the gym and I ate a salad today. That’s pretty healthy. Multiple things using inversion, use not only but also. Pause the video. Write your answer or say it out loud when you know it. Then press play when you’re ready. Of course I deserve a pizza. Not only have I been to the gym but I also ate a salad. I’m super healthy.

Okay, another very common way of using inversion is to say, this happened then immediately, this happened. For example, you saw an accident and immediately you called for an ambulance. You say this expression. No sooner, blah blah blah than blah blah blah. So in this case I saw an accident, then immediately I called an ambulance. Two actions in the past. This one happened first so we change this to past perfect. No sooner had I seen the accident than I called an ambulance. So just remember the form. No sooner blah blah blah than blah blah blah. No sooner had I seen the accident than I called an ambulance.

You’re walking in the street. You see a pretty lady. Hi, everything is great. But then you look down. Uh oh, before I looked down I didn’t realize that I wasn’t wearing pants. Only when I looked down did I realize I wasn’t wearing any pants, brilliant. Only when I looked down, that stays normal. The next part, that is when we change the verb and the subject.

Next, you want to say wow, I had no idea that this was going to happen or I had no idea that this was happening at that moment. We have an expression for that and it’s this, little did I know. Your friend tells you a crazy story about her day. She was twerking in her office but she didn’t know her boss was watching the whole time. So we want to say that this and this were happening at the same time. Which word do we use for that? We use while. My boss was watching while I was twerking but, but I had no idea. So remember that sentence we use. I thought I was alone in the office. Little did I know my boss was watching while I was twerking.

Try your own examples using inversion in the comments. It’s something that you need to add to your speaking skills. So practice, practice, practice, and I’ll see you in the next class.