Learn how you can use inversion to add emphasis in your English sentence
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Jonathan: Good day! I’m Jonathan. |
| Dede: And this is Dede reporting! At the Heartbreak Motel in the US. |
| Jonathan: In this lesson, we will learn about how inversion is used to add emphasis in a sentence. |
| Dede: This conversation takes place between Dave and Sheila. Dave is very upset. |
| Jonathan: Because of Dave’s emotional state and because they are such close friends, they’ll be speaking very casually and even more like family than friends. |
| Dede: Poor Dave! Alright, let’s listen to the conversation! |
| DIALOGUE |
| Sheila: Hey Dave, you look quite the sight. What's the matter? |
| Dave: Isabel broke up with me today. Never have I felt more miserable. |
| Sheila: Oh, you poor thing. Do you want to talk? |
| Dave: We went out to dinner last night to celebrate my new job and got in a quarrel. |
| Sheila: What about? |
| Dave: Well, she just said that she was upset that I was leaving so soon. She was hesitant to get in a relationship in the first place and no sooner did we start getting close that I decided to leave. |
| Sheila: Such is life… You’ll be back post-election though, right? |
| Dave: Yeah, I thought a few months apart would be no big deal. Little did I realize! When I got home I checked my voicemail and had a message from her saying it was over. |
| Sheila: I'm sorry honey, do you want a hug? |
| Dave: Thanks, but I’d rather have a drink… |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Dede: Hmm… Is Sheila going to be Dave’s next girlfriend? It kind of sounds that way… |
| Jonathan: Haha, I don’t think so… Every culture has its own way of expressing friendship and understanding. When you look at the language that Sheila used in this dialogue, you may think that it is not very appropriate for a friend to be talking to someone like that– you’re right that a lot of the language she used seemed more like a romantic relationship than a friend relationship. |
| Dede: But don’t we call people that we, you know, like, “honey”? |
| Jonathan: You can, but especially when we are comforting a friend that has gone through a difficult emotional situation, we can use this type of language without romantic intentions. |
| Dede: What about when she asks if he wants a hug? |
| Jonathan: It doesn’t necessarily mean there is any kind of romantic relationship between them. In particular, Americans tend to give hugs a lot, even as a greeting or parting gesture between friends, |
| Dede: Hmm, that’s true. Even between guys and girls, huh. |
| Jonathan: Yup, between everyone – male friends, female friends, and friends of opposite genders can all hug each other without any romantic feelings. So... Feel free to hug me any time! |
| Dede: I think I’ll take a pass. |
| Jonathan: Well, even without hugs, we can still do vocabulary, so let’s move on. |
| Dede: (laughs) Okay, let’s go to the vocab! |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Dede: Let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| The first word we shall see is: |
| Jonathan: quite [natural native speed] |
| Dede: very; exceptionally; to the utmost, entirely, wholly |
| Jonathan: quite [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Jonathan: quite [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Jonathan: to break up [natural native speed] |
| Dede: to end a relationship |
| Jonathan: to break up [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Jonathan: to break up [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Jonathan: quarrel [natural native speed] |
| Dede: an argument, a fight |
| Jonathan: quarrel [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Jonathan: quarrel [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Jonathan: upset [natural native speed] |
| Dede: unhappy or angry |
| Jonathan: upset [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Jonathan: upset [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Jonathan: hesitant [natural native speed] |
| Dede: cautious, slow, careful, unsure |
| Jonathan: hesitant [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Jonathan: hesitant [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Jonathan: post- [natural native speed] |
| Dede: after something |
| Jonathan: post- [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Jonathan: post- [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Jonathan: voicemail [natural native speed] |
| Dede: a virtual mailbox for telephone voice messages; a message left in said box |
| Jonathan: voicemail [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Jonathan: voicemail [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Jonathan: miserable [natural native speed] |
| Dede: unhappy, very discontent |
| Jonathan: miserable [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Jonathan: miserable [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Jonathan: deal [natural native speed] |
| Dede: situation, issue, problem |
| Jonathan: deal [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Jonathan: deal [natural native speed] |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Dede: Well that’s all the words from this lesson. Let’s take a closer look at two of the phrases we saw. |
| Jonathan: Why don’t you get us started? |
| Dede: OK. The first was "quite", which means "to a heightened degree" or "absolutely". |
| Jonathan: Sheila says “Hey Dave, you look quite the sight.” We can use “quite” combined with a noun to emphasize that they seem a particular way. “Quite the sight” is a phrase to say someone looks surprising. |
| Dede: Yeah, like in the morning before your coffee – you look quite the sight! |
| Jonathan: Haha, true. We can also use it to emphasize how good someone is at something. |
| Dede: Yeah! I was amazed at how good you were at ping-pong… You really are quite the ping-pong player. |
| Jonathan: Thanks! Let’s move onto the next word. |
| Dede: Alright…it is "deal", which means "situation, issue, problem". In the dialogue, Dave says “I thought a few months apart would be no big deal.” |
| Jonathan: When we say something is “a big deal” in this way we mean that it is an important issue or situation. |
| Dede: Right, so when we say “no big deal” it’s kind of like saying “no problem” to mean that it's OK. |
| Jonathan: Oh sorry! I stepped on your toe! |
| Dede: That’s OK, no big deal! |
| Jonathan: Alright then, I think that brings us to… |
| Dede: My favorite part! |
| Jonathan: The grammar! |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Dede: The focus of this lesson is using inversion to add emphasis. |
| Jonathan: Dave says “Never have I felt more miserable.” |
| Dede: Inversion is a somewhat tricky grammatical structure that is not very common in spoken English but important to understand for when you do hear or read it. |
| Jonathan: Inversion means “upside-down”, so when we see inversion being used, we mean that the order is reversed. |
| Dede: Most commonly, we change the word order of a sentence in order to emphasize something. |
| Jonathan: We change a regular order sentence with inversion in order to put the most important thought first. This kind of sentence is easier to understand with examples though. |
| Dede: So first up we have… |
| Jonathan: “Under no circumstances should an employee leave early.” |
| Dede: Here, we could have said… |
| Jonathan: “An employee should leave early under no circumstances.” |
| Dede: But we want to emphasize that it is never alright to leave early. So we use inversion to highlight the “Under no circumstances” by putting it first in the order |
| Jonathan: Let’s listen to a different example now… |
| Dede: Rarely have I been so tired. |
| Jonathan: In this case we could have said |
| Dede: “I have rarely been so tired” |
| Jonathan: But if we wish to stress that it is a rare or uncommon event, we can use inversion to make this clear. |
| Dede: Never have we had such a boring grammar point. |
| Jonathan: I’d like to disagree. Surely there must have been a more boring lesson. |
| Dede: (laughs), see in these examples, I highlighted “Never” |
| Jonathan: And I stressed “surely” |
| Dede: Listen to that again if you couldn’t quite understand. |
| Jonathan: Let’s move on and take a better look at the examples from the dialogue. |
| Dede: Once again, Dave said…"Never have I felt more miserable." |
| Jonathan: Because “never” comes first, we know that Dave is choosing to emphasize it. He truly has never been more miserable than right now. Why don’t you take the next one? Dave says "Little did I realize!" |
| Dede: Here he is emphasizing “Little” to show how he didn’t realize much at all and was very surprised by the result. |
| Jonathan: Great job! Just a word of caution to our listeners though; we need to be careful when we use inversion as a technique because it can make us sound overdramatic. |
| Dede: (mock emotion) Too late did I realize! |
| Jonathan: We hear it more commonly in literature than in normal speech but it is important to understand the construction for when we hear it. |
| Dede: (mock emotion) So embarrassed was I! |
| Jonathan: If we hear it in speech, like we did with Dave, it is usually a situation where people are acting emotionally. |
| Dede: (mock emotion) Never shall I attempt to use inversion again! |
| Jonathan: Oh, knock it off! You’re being a drama queen! |
| Dede: (Laughs) As you can see, this construction sounds a bit odd for use in normal conversation, but it is appropriate when you are upset or defending yourself. |
Outro |
| Jonathan: Okay, well I think that’s going to do it for today! We hoped you enjoyed this lesson. Bye-bye, everyone! |
| Dede: See you soon! |
Comments
HideHello Listeners! Can you make a sample sentence using inversion to add emphasis?
Hello Nelia,
It's great to see your enthusiasm and commitment to learning! Inversion can indeed be a challenging aspect of English, but it's fantastic that you're making the effort to understand and use it. 😄😄
Regarding your sentence, you're on the right track! However, there are a few corrections to be made:
1. "Never could I expect that my best friend did this with me!" - The correct sentence would be "Never could I have expected that my best friend would do this to me!" Here's why:
- We use "could have expected" instead of "could expect" to refer to an expectation in the past that did not happen.
- We use "would do" instead of "did" to refer to an action in the past that was unexpected.
- We use "to me" instead of "with me" because "do something to someone" is the correct phrase when someone has done something that affects you, especially if it's negative or unexpected.
So, keep going, Nelia! You're doing a great job, and every mistake is a step towards progress. Remember, practice makes perfect!
Thank you!
Éva
Team EnglishClass101.com
Hello! This task seemed difficult for me.😄 I realised that I had never used inversion in my speech before.😒I was thinking about the example of inversion for two days!😆
"Never could I expect that my best friend did this with me!"
To tell the truth, I'm not sure that this sentence is right. I meant that I had never had any idea in my mind about my friend's doings.
Hello Abdoulaye,
Thank you for your message! It's great to see you using English to express your thoughts on current situations. I'm here to help with any questions you might have. 😄👍
As for your sentence, here are some corrections for you to consider:
1. "Never did I know we’d soon working from home more often." - The correct version would be "Never did I know we'd soon be working from home more often." The verb 'be' is necessary here to form the future continuous tense 'would be working', which expresses an action or situation that will be in progress at some point in the future.
Keep up the good work, and continue practicing your English skills! If you have any other questions, feel free to ask.
Thank you!
Éva
Team EnglishClass101.com
Hi 101.com!
Never did I know we'd soon working from home more often.
👍❤️
Hello Leo,
Thank you for taking the time to write to us. 👍👍👍
The "Heartbreak Motel/ Hotel" is the name of some accommodation. It's actually an Elvis Presley song too! In this case, it is in relation to Dave being heartbroken because Isabel broke up with him. He's at the "Heartbreak Motel/ Hotel" because he is feeling broken-hearted.
If you would like further assistance, I suggest upgrading to our ‘Premium Plus’ membership to get personal instructions from one of our English teachers through our ‘MyTeacher’ feature!www.englishclass101.com/myteacher
Kindly,
Éva
Team EnglishClass101.com
Hello EnglishClass101,
I didn't understant the title: At the heartbreak motel in the US.
What the meaning of word "motel" in this sentence? Considering the dialogue set up in Sheila and Dave apartment?
Thanks in advance!
Hi there Beemo,
Great. Thanks for sharing!
If you ever have any questions, please let us know!
Kindly,
Éva
Team EnglishClass101.com
Under no circumstances should we leave this house without getting my money back.
That was for your question at the beginning of the comments🙂
Hello Az Ho,
Thank you so much for your positive message and heart! ❤️️❤️️❤️️
Feel free to contact us if you have any questions.
We wish you good luck with your language studies.
Kind regards,
Levente
Team EnglishClass101.com
❤️️❤️️❤️️❤️️❤️️❤️️❤️️❤️️
Hi there Johanna,
Thanks for taking the time to ask us your question. 👍
The lesson is called "At the Heartbreak Motel in the US" as the example conversation is set in a motel. This lesson is also given in American English.
I hope this helps. 😄👍
Kindly,
Éva
Team EnglishClass101.com
Hi guys! Why the title has the word "Motel"? It's because Dave prefered to have a drink than a hug from his friend Sheila?
Hello Gio Kobiashvili,
You are very very welcome. 😇❤️️ We were so happy to read your positive message!
Feel free to contact us if you have any questions.
We wish you good luck with your language studies.
Kind regards,
Levente
Team EnglishClass101.com
Thank you for all our lessons!! I learn a lot of nuances of speaking English from the dialog as well as from the dialog of the teachers!!
Hello InsuKim,
Great to hear that! 😇 Thank you very much for your message.
Feel free to contact us if you have any questions.
Good luck with your language studies.
Kind regards,
Levente
Team EnglishClass101.com
Thanks. Your response is very clear.
Hi there InsuKim,
Thanks for taking the time to write to us! 😄
"You look quite the sight" - can mean you look stunning but it can also mean you look horrible (depending on the context and the humour). This is a phrase that isn't using typical grammar rules.
I hope this is helpful to you! 😄
Sincerely,
Éva
Team EnglishClass101.com
I have a question in the above dialogue. "Yon look quite a sight". Usually, after look like, a noun is coming, and after look, an adjective needs. Then, how come makes sense the sentence? Please explain it.
Hi there Kathy,
Thanks for the question!
Instead you would say, "I never intended on making some bread."
I hope this is helpful to you! 😄
Sincerely,
Éva
Team EnglishClass101.com
Hello,
Never should I intented to make a bread!
Is this correct?