Transcript of SOS Grammar Lesson 11 – Inverted Conditionals

SOS Grammar Lesson 11, Conditional Inversions. In this lesson, I’m going to discuss an advanced grammar topic, conditional inversions, and give you some examples in both positive and negative forms and get you thinking more about why we might use them. Although conditional clauses are often called “if clauses”, they don’t always include the word “if”.

In more formal situations, or when you want to place more emphasis on a possible missed opportunity, we use a technique called “inversion” where we reverse the order of the subject and the verb, and we call these clauses “inverted conditionals”. Here are some examples where “if” has been replaced with the verb “had” and the subject and verb order has been inverted in positive forms.

“Had you helped me with chopping the meat, I wouldn’t have cut my hand.” And the non-inverted version would be, “if he had helped me with chopping the meat, I wouldn’t have cut my hand.” The inverted version: “Had I known you would be late, I would have waited to put dinner in the oven.” The non-inverted version: “If I had known you would be late, I would have waited to put dinner in the oven.”

So, even though they’re slightly different, why do we use inverted conditionals? They are used for three main reasons, for emphasis, dramatic purpose or formality. As I’m sharing examples try to think about and picture which of the three situations you might use in your own life.

For example, I would use the inverted form if I wanted to emphasise how angry I was in an argument. So, listen to this example. “Had I known you would take this long, I would have done it myself.” How can you make an inversion? What’s the structure? We can use inversion for all conditionals. So, let’s go through some examples for the first, second and third conditional looking at both positive and negative forms.

Inversion in the first conditional, positive forms. Inversion in the first conditional is very common. You’ll often hear examples in customer service to emphasise formality. To invert sentences in the first conditional, we place the auxiliary “should” before the subject, followed by the infinitive of the main verb. So, the structure would be “should + subject + infinitive”.

Here are some examples. One: “Should you fly with us again; we will offer you a 10% discount.” In the non-inverted form, “if you fly with us again”. Number two: “Should you have any further questions, please reach out to our customer service team.” And the non-inverted form, “if you have any further questions”. So, where does this come from? It comes from an airline customer service email addressing a complaint.

So, we’re very likely to hear it in customer service. What about negative forms? It’s important to note we don’t use contractions in negative-inverted conditionals. We use this tense to talk about something that might happen or didn’t.

So, here is an example of a negative form. “Should you not wish to sign the contract, you must let them know before the end of June.” In the non-inverted form, “if you don’t wish to sign the contract, you must let them know before the end of June.” So, as you’ll notice, in the non-inverted form, we can have contractions with “do and not”, “don’t”.

But in the negative form of the inverted conditional it’s “should you not wish to sign the contract”. Now, the source of this example was a real estate rental agreement. Now let’s look at inversion in the second conditional, positive forms. It is uncommon to use inversion in second conditional sentences in speech, as they’re often restricted to formal written English.

But as you’ll notice in the first example, it might be something you hear an angry person trying to use to make a point. In second conditionals inversion is used to rewrite “if clauses” that contain the verb “be”. So, we use the structure “were + subject”. Here is an example: “Were this my room, I would be ashamed.” And the non-inverted form, “if this were my room”.

The source of this was, well, my grade four teacher used to speak with a very formal tone when she tried to tell us we had made the classroom messy. When the “if clause” refers to an unlikely future event, we use the inversion “were + subject + to + infinitive”, and we can use this structure with verbs other than “be”.

Here’s another example: “Were I to stay again, I would bring my family next time to make use of the pool and play area.” In the non-inverted form, “if I stayed again”. Notice how the verb “stay” changes form in the inverted version from “stayed to stay” because the inverted form uses the infinitive. Now, where did this come from? It’s taken directly from an Airbnb review.

Now let’s look at negative forms. “Were Anna not a smart person, she would invest all her money in unstable shares.” In negative forms we can also use the idiomatic phrase “were it not for”, which is an- Also an example of an inverted conditional, and it means “without”. So, here are two examples used in the second conditional and another one in the third conditional.

So, in the second conditional: “Were it not for the construction works, the food court would be open.” And in the non-inverted form, “if it weren’t for the construction works”. Another example: “Were it not for the quick actions of the neighbours, the fire would have been much worse.” And that’s an example of a third conditional, “if it hadn’t been for the quick actions”.

And where do these two examples come from? They come from newspaper articles talking about events. Now we have inversion in the third conditional, positive forms. Third conditional inversions are also common and would most likely be used, for example, if you wanted to emphasise how disappointed you were at a missed opportunity. So, expressing regret.

To invert third conditional “if clauses” use the structure “had + subject + past participle”. So, here’s an example: “Had we known about the bathroom leak, we never would have given you that room.” And the non-inverted version would be, “if we had known about the bathroom leak”. And where did this come from? It was a customer service desk explaining to a customer what they would have done about the leak or the problem.

And then we have negative forms. Examples: “Had the hotel not been so awful, I would have enjoyed myself.” We wouldn’t say, “hadn’t the hotel been so awful”. Another example: “Had it not rained last Saturday, we would have celebrated Tom’s birthday with a barbecue in the garden.” How do we use the more normal “if clause” to express this conditional idea?

The contracted negative form would have been the norm, so it would have read like, “if it hadn’t rained last Saturday, we would have celebrated Tom’s birthday with a barbecue in the garden.” Did you also notice that my last sentence was also an inverted conditional, but in the positive form? Had we used the more normal “if clause” to express this conditional idea, the contracted negative form would have been the norm.

Now what I want to do is read out some examples of “if clauses” and as you’re listening, I want you to have a go at making the inverted form. I’ll give you a few seconds in between to think about it, and then I’ll read out the correct answer. Also, think about when you might use these examples in real life. Okay, let’s go. Number one: “If I had known about the new special menu, I would have ordered from it.”

Correct version would be, “had I known about the new specials menu, I would have ordered from it.” And what context would you hear something like this in? Well, for me, I would hear it at the pub ordering food with my friends and expressing regret because my friend ordered the parma, it looks good, and I have food regret. Number two: “If it hadn’t been too hot to be outside last week, we would have gone to the beach.”

So, the correct answer, “had it not been too hot outside last week, we would have gone to the beach.” And what context would we use this in? You might be recalling your week to your friends and you’re expressing regret at the weather, or you wished that you had been able to go.

Number three: “If you need any further information, just contact me.” Correct answer, “Should you need any further information, just contact me.” And what context would you use this in? Being polite in an email after a customer requested some information and just be aware that this is very formal.

Number four: “If you want to be healthy, you must exercise and eat well.” Correct answer, “should you want to be healthy; you must exercise and eat well.” And what’s the context for this inverted conditional? Well, it’s an ad campaign from a healthy food delivery company. Number five: “If he had helped me with chopping the meat, I wouldn’t have cut my hand.”

Correct answer, “had he helped me with chopping the meat, I wouldn’t have cut my hand.” And what context would you use this? You might be recounting a story to a friend and you, again, you’re expressing regret at the fact that he wasn’t helping you. Number six: “If we had known we would have to pay expensive insurance extras, we would never have booked the hire car.”

“Had we known we would have to pay expensive insurance extras, we would have never booked the hire car.” And in what context would you see something like this? It could be a customer complaint or a written review. So, this one was taken directly from a review of a car hire company. Now see how much you’ve remembered from this lesson and have a go at the quiz attached to the end of the lesson.