We use inversion to add emphasis to statements and variety to our writing.

Inversion can “make[s] our

sentence[s] sound surprising or striking or unusual,” writes Seonaid Beckwich. She is founder of the website
Perfect-English-Grammar.com.
But inversion is not for everyday speech. English speakers use it in formalstatements, and most often in
writing, such as in essays and works of literature. And, it is only done with some words and phrases.
There are more than 15 types of inversion, but only some are used in academic writing. Today we will show
you how to use a few types. When used the right way, inversion can strengthen points and make your writing
more memorable. Another reason for learning inversion is that examples appear on the TOEFL, or Test of
English as a Foreign Language.
The use of inversion is an important stylistic technique in both prose and poetry. It allows for the writer to
organize thoughts in an interesting way in order to emphasis certain ideas to the reader. In addition to
focusing the attention to certain words or phrases, by using a different order than the typical sentence
structure, it creates a certain rhythm to the piece of literature.
just like in common speech, authors use inversion in their works to emphasize certain words. When the
natural flow of language is manipulated, the reader takes more notice. It is also more common to find
inversion in poetry than in prose because there the unnaturalness of inversion lends itself well to creating a
poetic lilt. Poets might also choose to use inversion in order to create a rhyme or uphold a meter that would
not work with the syntactically correct order of words.

William shakespeare. Romeo and Juliet

Anastrophe is a literary technique where the natural order of words is inverted. This is done in order to
achieve a particular effect or emphasis. “Anastrophe” is a Greek word which means “to turn back.” The word
order in which sentences are constructed in English is generally subject-verb-object. It is correct to say, “I saw
an alien.” An inversion of this sentence is “An alien, I saw.”
Shakespeare often uses unusual word orders so that the line will conform to the desired poetic rhythm.
Instead of following a sequence of subject first and the verb second, Shakespeare often places the verb before
the subject e.g. “Speaks he” rather than “He speaks.”

Conditional sentences are statements of an “if-then” or “unless-then” situation (although “then” is not used),
or a probability. These sentences present situations and their possible outcomes. Conditional sentences are
often used to discuss the results of the research studies or are part of a research hypothesis statement.
Conditional sentences are perfectly acceptable and, in many cases, necessary to state and test a condition and
its outcome. Most authors of the scientific papers will use these sentences in their abstracts to discuss the
reasons to conduct their study.

There’s no rule about when to use them or not. They serve three basic purposes:

1. the first words you see in a sentence set the tone for the sentence. You might choose to move
something into that position to increase its impact.
2. Good writing varies sentence length and rhythm. If you have a few sentences that all start the
same way, you might change the word order of one to get more variety.
3. sometimes a sentence is cleaner and less wordy if you change the order.
that said, sentences starting with “though” phrases are not inverted. Beginning a sentence with a modifying
phrase that functions as adjective or adverb to the subject that follows is classic, traditional, totally orthodox
sentence structure,

After leaving school, he stopped at Mary’s house,

Though normally he hated peas, he found these delicious.

If not for the homework he’d been given, he could have gone out partying.
 With this lesson, you’ll learn to use the Second Conditional. This conditional form can be the most challenging
because we use it to talk about hypothetical (unreal) situations or events.
But it’s important because we use it to:
 Give advice
 Talk about unlikely/impossible situations
 Imagine different future outcomes
 Express regret or wish for a different reality

Most English classes and grammar books teach you the basic rules of conditionals, such as: If + past simple +
would + infinitive
And certainly, that can be useful. But it doesn’t help you understand how to really use conditionals in your
daily English life. So let’s change that.
Don’t forget to review the others lessons in this series:
 Part 1: Zero and First Conditionals
 Part 3: Third Conditional
Learn to use the right conditional every time.
Lesson by Annemarie
How to Use the Second Conditional in English
If you completed the lesson on the First Conditional, then you know it is used in real situations/actions with a
likely result. For example:
 We will pay 3% more if you complete the project by next week. = this is a likely possibility
But the Second Conditional is for UNREAL or UNLIKELY situations in the present or future time.
 If you completed this project by next week, we would pay 3% more. = it does not seem possible or likely that
the company can complete the project by next week, so we won’t pay 3% more.
The use of “would” and the “past simple” change the meaning from REAL to UNREAL.

Unlikely & Impossible Situations

We use the Second Conditional to:
 say what is impossible or unlikely
 imagine a different present time or imagine a possible future time
 express that we wish for a different reality
This is where the Second Conditional can be confusing. We use it to talk about unlikely, impossible,
hypothetical, or imaginary present/future situations. For example:
 I would exercise a lot more if I had time. (= I would like time to exercise more, but it isn’t likely that my
schedule will change)
 If their company had a better reputation, we would consider them for the contract. Their creative marketing
proposal was great, but I never hear anything good about working with them. (= but it is unlikely we will
consider them for a contract)
 If I could, I would make conditional tenses disappear. (= but I can’t, it isn’t possible)
 My commute to work would be so much shorter if I didn’t live outside the city limits! (= but I don’t live in the
city so a shorter commute is impossible)
For the workplace, let’s imagine a negotiation: Two sides are negotiating but one side is unable to
compromise:
We would have to cut some of our staff if we reduced our costs by 10%. I’m sorry but we just can’t do that. (=
Perhaps the company would like to reduce their costs but it is not possible unless they want to lose some of
their staff.)

Giving Advice
We often use this form to give advice, especially if we want to be polite or professional.
If I were you, I would …*
*Do you notice the use of were with I, not was? This is the correct form of the Second Conditional when giving
advice!
 If I were you, I would be honest about what happened.
 If I were you, I would study a little bit every day. You’ll be more likely to succeed on the exam if you do.
 If I were you, I would tell them that we cannot negotiate on the costs – it just isn’t possible.

Just for Fun

Sometimes we use conditionals just for fun. No! I’m not joking.
We use conditionals to imagine something different. Maybe it’s a different future or something that is
impossible. We even use these questions to get to know each other.
Here are some examples:
 If you were president, what is one law you would change?
 If you could go back to university, what would study?
 If you could change your career, what would you be?
 If you could travel anywhere in the world for a two-week vacation, where would you go?
Fun, right? 🙂
 1st condition
 Truths
 Probabilities
 Future Consequences
 Promises and Warnings

2nd condition
 Give advice
 Talk about unlikely/impossible situations
 Imagine different future outcomes
 Express regret or wish for a different reality

3rd condition
 Give criticism
 Express regrets
 Wish for changes to the past

 We don’t use unless and if together:

I’ll try to get there about 6.30 unless you want me to arrive earlier.

Not: I’ll try to get there about 6.30 unless if you want me to arrive earlier.

Aaah… there we go! So, it’s about using a ton of different tenses
for a ton of different situations. To make matters even worse,
there are slightly more types of conditional sentences in the
English language than you can count on just one hand. The total
number is six, to be exact.

In sum, conditionals are the hardest to grasp because they

encompass almost all English verb tenses and require learners to
use any of them spontaneously at any given time and in any given
context.
Yes, all of it sounds quite hard. However, this article is aimed to
help you clear up some issues you might have had with
conditionals and learn how and when to use them properly.