Inversion 2

Index

Change the normal sentence into one with inversion. You may have to change some of the words. ANSWERS + EXPLANATION

1) She had just recovered from pneumonia when she went down with flu.
No sooner she went down with flu.

2) As I sat down to eat dinner, the telephone rang.
Hardly the telephone rang.

3) As soon as David arrived at the airport he met his old friend.
than he met his old friend.

4) We had hardly started playing football when it began to rain.
Scarcely it began to rain.

5) Susan had barely finished her tea when Arthur returned.
when Arthur returned.

Answers

We use No sooner ... than, Hardly/Scarcely/Barely ... when/before when we want to say that one event happened a very short time after another. These expressions are usually used with past perfect.

Negative inversion with adverbs of time meaning 'immediately after' or 'only just'.
HARDLY/BARELY + HAD + SUBJECT + PAST PARTICIPLE ... WHEN/BEFORE ...
Hardly/Scarcely/Barely had we arrived home when my phone rang.
NO SOONER + HAD + SUBJECT + PAST PARTICIPLE ... THAN ...
No sooner had they got married than they started to argue.

1) had she recovered from pneumonia than 2) had I sat down to eat dinner when/before 3) No sooner had David arrived at the airport 4) had we started playing football when/before 5) Hardly/Barely/Scarcely had Susan finished her tea