Lesson plan English 9 Cao Vien secondary school 2010 - 2011

I. INVERSION
- In formal English the subject and verb are occasionally inverted, to give emphasis or literary or
dramatic effect. This should be avoided in spoken or informal English.
INVERSION may takes place in :
A Adverb clauses beginning with Scarcely/hardly...
when/before, No sooner... than
-Hardly had he raised the alarm(,) when the
fire engine arrived.
B Negative adverb clauses beginning with Under/in no
circumstances, On no account, In vain, At no time, In no
way, Never/Not for one moment, Seldom, Rarely, Barely,
Never (before)
-At no time did they actually break the rules
of the game.
-Never had Tom been treated like that before!
C Negative adverb clauses beginning with only + a time
expression, as in only after, only later, only once, only
then, only when
Adverb clauses beginning with only + other prepositional
phrases such as: only by..., only in..., only with...
-Only after thay had finished eating did they
get back to work.
-Only by chance had Teresa discovered where
the birbs were nesting.
D Clauses beginning with not..., such as not only, not until,
and also not + object
-Not until he retired did he think about a
holiday abroad.
-Not a sound did she make as she crept

off, up, around
NOTE: do/did are not used in this case and inversion does
not take place if the subject is a pronoun or if the continuous
tense is used.
-Here comes the bus!
-Look! There go the students on their way to
school.
-In the corner sat the boy sadly.
-Up into the sky flew the little bird.
Teacher:Vu Thi Thu Huyen 1
Lesson plan English 9 Cao Vien secondary school 2010 - 2011
K Clauses beginning with neither/nor or so, particularly
common in short answers
-Neither do I.
-Nor is he.
-So are you.
-The council never wanted the new
supermarket to be built, nor did the local
students.
L Comparision with as and than (in formal written language).
NOTE: we don’t invert subject and verb when the subject is
a pronoun.
-That cake was excellent, as was the coffee.
-I believe, as did my colleagues, that the plan
would work.
-I know a lot more about computers than does
my sister.
II/ TAG QUESTION:
A tag question is a special construction in English. It is a statement followed by a mini-question. We use tag
questions at the end of statements to ask for confirmation or agreement. They are very common in English.

3) When anyone, nobody, none, neither, something, everyone, someone, etc is the subject in the
statement, we use it in the tag to refer to something or nothing and they in the tag to refer to someone
or nobody
Teacher:Vu Thi Thu Huyen 2
Lesson plan English 9 Cao Vien secondary school 2010 - 2011
Ex: Everyone warned you, didn’t they?
Someone had recognized him. hadn’t they?
Something happened at Jack’s house, didn’t it?
Neither of them complained, did they?
4) Question tags with imperatives and let’s :
After imperatives, we sometimes add will you?, won’t you?, etc. We use won’t for invitations and
can, can’t, will, would for orders. After let’s we add shall we?
Ex: Don’t stay there long, will you?
Help me, can’t you?
Let’s have buttered scones with strawberry jam for tea, shall we?
Close the door, would you?
5) Omission of pronoun subject and auxiliary verb:
In very informal speech, we sometimes leave out pronoun subjects, auxiliary verbs and verb to be in
the sentence.
Ex: Awful weather, isn’t it? (= It’s awful weather, isn’t it?)
Keeping well, are you? (= You’re keeping well, aren’t you?)
Nobody at home, is there? (= There’s nobody at home, is there?)
6) Same-way question tags:
We use same-way question tags to express interest, surprise, anger etc,and not to make real question
Ex: So she’s having a baby, is she? That’s wonderful. (positive-positive structure)
You don’t think that’s amusing, do you? Think again. (positive-positive structure)
Peter doesn’t like my looks, doesn’t he? (negative-negative structure -> rather hostile)
 Intonation :
If we use rising intonation in the tag, we do not know or are not sure what the answer will be. If we use a
falling intonation in the tag, we are simply seeking agreement.