Rules and Regulations
Senior 6 · English (Languages)
Rules and Regulations
Lesson 3 of 4
30 min
Let's begin
Playwrights and speech-makers have a problem that novelists do not: the audience hears each line once, at the speed of speech. One way to make a line land is to change its word order, so that the important word comes first and the subject is held back. This is inversion. Used well, it makes a line sound like a vow, a curse or an accusation; used badly, it makes a speaker sound pompous. In this lesson you will learn the patterns and test their effect on stage.
A short play scene written for this lesson.
A cooperative's storeroom at dusk. Sacks are stacked against the wall. MUKAMANA, the chairwoman, faces NGABO, the storekeeper. Members crowd the doorway.
MUKAMANA: Twenty sacks of seed. Never in twelve years have we lost a single sack.
NGABO: I can explain …
MUKAMANA: Not only did you sell what belonged to all of us, but you also wrote "eaten by rats" in the register.
NGABO: (looking at the floor) Had I known the inspector was coming, I would have told you myself.
MUKAMANA: Had you known! So the crime is not the theft. It is the inspector.
A MEMBER laughs and is silenced.
NGABO: My son was sick. Rarely have I asked this cooperative for anything.
MUKAMANA: (quieter) Then why did you not ask? Should any member fall into trouble, the rules allow a loan. Only yesterday did I sign one.
NGABO: Little did I think that you would listen.
Pause. Rain begins on the iron roof.
MUKAMANA: So ashamed am I, Ngabo, that I cannot look at you. Not at your theft. At us, for making you believe you could not ask.
The members murmur. In through the doorway comes OLD KAREKEZI, leaning on his stick.
KAREKEZI: Here comes the rain, and here come the excuses. Under no circumstances will this be settled tonight.
Definition
Key terms
| Trigger at the front | Type | From the scene or another example |
|---|---|---|
| Never, Rarely, Seldom, Little, At no time, Not once | Subject–auxiliary | Never in twelve years have we lost a single sack. Little did I think … |
| Under no circumstances, On no account, In no way | Subject–auxiliary | Under no circumstances will this be settled tonight. |
| Not only … but also | Subject–auxiliary in the first clause only | Not only did you sell …, but you also wrote … |
| Hardly / Scarcely … when; No sooner … than | Subject–auxiliary, usually with the past perfect | No sooner had the meeting begun than the rain started. |
| Only then, Only after …, Only when …, Only by … | Subject–auxiliary in the main clause | Only yesterday did I sign one. Only when the inspector came did we find out. |
| Conditionals without if: Had, Should, Were | Subject–auxiliary | Had I known … Should any member fall into trouble … Were I in your place … |
| So + adjective / Such + be | Subject–verb | So ashamed am I that I cannot look at you. Such was her anger that … |
| Place and direction: Here, There, In, Down, On the hill | Full inversion (noun subjects only) | Here comes the rain. In through the doorway comes Old Karekezi. |
Two limits. First, full inversion does not happen with a pronoun subject: "Here it comes", never "Here comes it". Second, only and not until invert the main clause, not the clause that follows them: "Only when the inspector came did we find out", not "Only when came the inspector …".
Worked example
Why inversion works on stage: two lines from Shakespeare
Worked example
Analysing a line from the scene: "Had I known the inspector was coming, I would have told you myself."
Warning
BBC English Masterclass: Inversion 1: After Negative or Limiting Adverbs, from BBC Learning English. Watch for the rule about adding do when there is no auxiliary, and for the adverbials that need a whole clause before the inversion.
Practice
Sources and credits
