Inversion after adverbs of place like here, there.

After here and there and after some particles such as back, down, off, up, etc. the noun subject comes after the verb. This is common with verbs of motion, such as come and go: Here comes a bus! There goes the last bus! (Note the progressive is not used here.) Down came the rain and up went the umbrellas.

Inversion does not occur if the subject is a pronoun: Here it comes. There he goes. Down it went. Here you are. (offer) There she is. (identifying location)

Inversions after adverbials of place.

After adverbials of place with verbs of position (e.g. lie, live, sit, stand) or motion (e.g. come go rise), the noun subject can follow the verb. This happens mainly in descriptive writing: At the top of the hill stood the tiny house. This inversion also occurs in the passive with other verbs: In the distance could be seen the white peaks of the mountains. Inversion does not occur if the subject is a pronoun: At the top of the hill it stood out against the sky.

Inversion after negative adverbs, etc.

Certain adverbs, when used at the beginning of a sentence, must be followed by auxiliary verbs (be, do, have, can, must, etc.) + subject + the rest of the sentence. The inversion occurs after the following:

• negative or near-negative adverbs (often of time or frequency, such as never, rarely, seldom); or adverbs having a negative effect – little, on no account: Never/seldom has there been so much protest against the Bomb. Little does he realize how important this report is. On no account must you accept any money if he offers it.

• combinations with only (e.g. only after, only then): The pilot reassured the passengers. Only then did I realize how dangerous the situation had been.

• so + adjective (+ that) and such (+ that): So sudden was the attack (that) we had no time to escape. Such was his strength that he could bend iron bars.

Exercise 165. Translate into English using inversion after adverbs:

1. Такой неожиданной была встреча, что мы не могли сразу найти слов. 2. Никогда не встречал такой красивой девушки! 3. Только тогда я поняла, что меня ужасно обманули. 4. Где-то вдалеке виднелись вершины гор, покрытые снегом. 5. Вон она идёт! 6. Такая была у него память, что многие завидовали. 7. Такой ужасной была погода, что мы все простыли. 8. Не осознал он, как много времени потрачено зря. 9. На подоконнике, в маленькой вазочке распустился чудесный цветок. 10. Так велико было его желание получить эту работу, что он не мог есть. 11. Никогда не думал он об этом прежде. 12. Высоко в небе летела и звонко пела маленькая птичка. 13. Глубоко вздохнул он, вспомнив, что завтра ему надо идти в школу.

Revision

Exercise 166. Choose between an adjective and an adverb:

1. She always greets us (warm, warmly). 2. I see it (clear, clearly). 3. It is (warm, warmly) today. 4. I can do it (easy, easily). 5. Don’t look so (cold, coldly) at me. 6. It is (easy, easily). 7. It is (cold, coldly) in the room. 8. Of course it is (good, well). 9. It is (correct, correctly). 10. You know it (good, well). 11. Spell the word (correct, correctly). 12. It is (clear, clearly). 13. He speaks German (good, well). 14. You look tired; you’ve been working (hard, hardly). 15. We’ve received a lot of mail (late, lately). 16. How are you? Are you (good, well). 17. She has (great, greatly) changed. I could (hard, hardly) recognize her. 18. It was a (late, lately) hour and he turned home. 19. I play chess but I’m not very (good, well) at it. 20. He came home (late, lately) when everybody was sleeping. 21. The wind blows (high, highly). 22. Sophie uses her car (mostly, most) for going to the shops.

Exercise 167. Choose the proper word from brackets:

1. She looks (nice, nicely) in her new dress. 2. Everything is all right with the little girl; she looks (gay, gaily) and (cheerful, cheerfully) again. 3. She looked (sad, sadly) at me and turned away. 4. What’s the matter with you? You look so (sad, sadly). 5. The girl looked (helpless, helplessly) about. 6. The woman looked (helpless, helplessly). 7. She looked (pleasant, pleasantly) and made everybody feel at ease. 8. She looked (pleasant, pleasantly) at the little girl. 9. The girl looked (happy, happily) at her father, but the father looked (angry, angrily). 10. Father looked (stern, sternly) at me and I felt (unhappy, unhappily). 11. The car stopped (right, rightly) in the middle of the road. 12. Is your English (good, well)? 13. How many people were there at the (last, least) meeting? 14. I like your hat. It looks (good, well) on you. 15. Their son gives them the (last, least) trouble. 16. She feels (bad, badly) today. 17. The soup tastes (good, well). 18. She usually feels (lazy, lazily) in hot weather. 19. She cooks (bad, badly). 20. There’s a (bright, brightly) fire in the room. 21. Does he speak (quiet, quietly)? 22. The table feels (smooth, smoothly).

Exercise 168. Choose between an adjective and an adverb:

1. The birds flew (low, lowly), almost touching the water with their wings. 2. He is a (good, well) driver; he always drives very (careful, carefully). 3. (Most, mostly) students she is friendly with are from her place. 4. If she can jump that (high, highly) she’ll win the prize. 5. It’s (near, nearly) eleven o’clock. It’s time for you to go to bed. 6. Why are you walking so (slow, slowly)? What’s the matter? 7. We studied (hard, hardly) before the exam. 8. He looked (anxious, anxiously) around. 9. Are you (careful, carefully) while driving? 10. My brother began in a (low, lowly) position at the bank. 11. The students with whom she studies are (most, mostly) from Belarus. 12. Few people are (high, highly) paid in this firm. 13. It was clever of him to make such a (near, nearly) translation. 14. They treated the boy (bad, badly). 15. When he began his journey he could (hard, hardly) crawl along. 16. She is very (slow, slowly) at understanding things. 17. I am very (anxious, anxiously) to leave as early as possible. 18. He has (regular, regularly) meals. 19. The flower smells (pleasant, pleasantly). 20. The train goes (fast, fastly). 21. The meat tastes (bad, badly). 22. Is he an (excellent, excellently) painter?

Exercise 169. Choose the right variant:

1. I’m getting on (nice, good, well) with them. 2. I saw a (well, good, best) film last week. 3. He is much (higher, taller, more) than she. 4. He feels (badly, well, bad). 5. Tom looks (happily, happy, unhappy). 6. They laugh (happily, happy, unhappy). 7. No wonder she’s won! She’s worked so (hardly, hard, hardy). 8. They must have (at all, at least, at last) one child. 9. He thinks the exams were dead (light, easy, easily). 10. (At all, at least, at last) we found the children in the wood. 11. He is pretty (well, best, good) at boxing, isn’t he? 12. I wanted to go to Greece, but in the end I went nowhere (at all, at least, at last). 13. Let’s stay inside. It’s (still, yet, already) raining. 14. I have not heard from my sister (late, lately, latest). 15. This car uses so much petrol you can (hardly, hard, nearly) afford to run it. 16. Her mother will be angry if she stays out (late, lately, latest). 17. Let me help you. The suitcase is too (heavy, difficult, hard) for you to carry. 18. Have you heard the (late, lately, latest) news? 19 The Urals are not so (tall, long, high) as the Alps. 20. I’ve started to learn Greek. But I haven’t got very far (still, yet, already). 21. He convinced us of the need for (difficult, heavy, hard) work. 22. At ten o’clock this morning Tom was (yet, still, already) in bed.

Exercise 170. Transform the following sentences.

1. He gave a bitter smile. = He smiled bitterly. 2. There has been a drastic fall in the dollar. 3. The Stock Exchange’s reaction was rather calm. 4. To a European, Chinese has a strange sound. 5. These almonds have a bitter taste. 6. Why did she give me a stern look? 7. Try and give an intelligent answer. 8. Your action was a cowardly one. 9. The boy had a slight limp. 10. The little girl had rather a sad look. 11. Her mother has given her a hard clasp. 12. Her movements were clumsy. 13. She has an ugly walk. 14. But she’s a good tennis player. 15. The sports committee has monthly meetings. 16. What they said had a deep effect upon me. 17. The room had a nice, cosy look. 18. The flowers had a fragrant smell. 19. I gave her a fatherly talk 20. I said that her behaviour had been extremely silly. 21. She gave me a sly glance. 22. An early start would be advisable. (It) 23. I’m sure her parents will give me a warm welcome. 24. Your argument is not logical.

Exercise 171. Choose from each pair of words the one that should be used.

1. I remarked that it was better to approach Ken direct/directly and not through his secretary. His secretary laughed out loud/loudly at my remark. I think she was deep/deeply offended by what I’d said. 2. Old Mr. Elkins is still going strong/strongly although he’s over ninety. He says he’d like to reach a hundred, but admits he may be aiming a bit high/highly. However, there’s a wide/widely held belief in the village that he’ll get there. 3. Georgina was about to say something but stopped short/shortly and her eyes opened wide/widely with amazement. Somewhere in the house a horse had neighed loud/loudly. 4. ‘He told me to turn sharp/sharply left just past the station.’ ‘If he told you that, he told you wrong/wrongly. But you got there in the end even though you were wrong/wrongly directed.’ 5. Faint/faintly in the distance we heard the noise of thunder. Then the radio went faint/faintly and we could hard/hardly hear the new. We shut all the windows tight/tightly and waited for the storm. 6. Marilyn’s leaving short/shortly for the United States on a business trip. As she right/rightly says, there’s nothing like personal contact for promoting one’s products. Her suitcase is so tight/tightly packed with samples there’s not even room for a toothbrush. She refuses to take two suitcases because she wants to travel light/lightly. 7. Ken was driving along at about eighty miles an hour when a stone went clean/cleanly through the windscreen and hit him in the face. Afterwards he talked light/lightly of the affair, but he was lucky to escape with his life. 8. There’s a lot more to Willie than one would think: still waters run deep/deeply, as they say. I’ve been following his career close/closely and think high/highly of his ability as an architect. But he’s inclined to work too hard/hardly, and the doctor has recently advised him to go slow/slowly. 9. When I took my driving test, the examiner said I had done everything right/rightly except reversing, when I had turned too sharp/sharply and mounted the pavement. He strong/strongly recommended me to practise in a smaller car than the one I’d been using. 10. Denis thinks up the most ludicrous schemes, which all fall flat/flatly. Helen’s parents are flat/flatly opposed to any idea of her marrying him. They say he was direct/directly involved in the recent financial scandal at the Town Hall. 11. The struggles my parents had in the early years of their marriage brought them closer/more closely together. Things often went bad/badly for them in those days, but look at them now! Things turned out right/rightly in the end.

Exercise 172. Translate into English:

1. Она чуть не опоздала на поезд. 2. Этот способ широко применялся в промышленности несколько лет назад. 3. Они недавно вернулись из командировки. 4. Сегодня довольно-таки жарко. 5. Подождите немного, она скоро придёт. 6. Дверь была широко открыта, и им было хорошо видно, что делается внутри. 7. Его прервали в самой середине речи. 8. Чем раньше вы закончите работу, тем раньше вы уйдёте домой. 9. Книга была настолько увлекательной, что я зачиталась до глубокой ночи. 10. Свет был очень плохой, приходилось подносить газету близко к глазам. 11. Они благополучно добрались до дома, хотя было очень темно. 12. Я вас правильно поняла? 13. Она справедливо считается самой лучшей ученицей. 14. Чем больше я слушаю её, тем меньше она мне нравится.