did I meet with in all my drive.
(London) Not a hint, however,
did she drop about sending me to school.
(Ch. Bronte) Many a dun
had she talked to and
turned away from her father’s door.
(Thackeray) Many a time
had he watched him digging graves in the churchyard.
(Dickens) I hated that man, many and many a time
had my fingers longed to tear him.
(Dickens) 6. Inversion often occurs when a predicative expressed by an adjective or by a noun modified
by an adjective or by the pronoun
such opens the sentence (in case the subject is a noun or an
indefinite pronoun).
Violent was Mr. Weller’s indignation as he was borne along.
(Dickens) Such is life , and we are but as grass that is cut down, and put into the oven
and baked.
(Jerome) Sweet was that evening .
(Ch. Bronte) 7. Inversion is also found in conditional clauses introduced without any conjunction when the
predicate is expressed by
was, were, had, could or
should. Even
were they absolutely
hers, it would be a passing means to enrich herself.
(Hardy) He soon returned with food enough for half-a-dozen people and two bottles of
wine — enough to last them for a day or more,
should any emergency arise .
(Hardy) Yates would have felt better,
