did I / can I/ have I in affirmative clauses

Question

Good afternoon. I'm not an English native speaker.
When is it possible to use inverted forms such as "did I / can I / have I" in affirmative clauses?
I've noticed that it is possible (and sounds pretty British English) after "only" both as adverb and as conjunction. Is it possible in other conditions?

"Only yesterday have I realised that I had lost my documents."
"Not only did I say that, I also repeated twice".

Tanit · Accepted Answer

Hi Giuseppe, and welcome!

The structure you're referring to is called "inversion."

Your examples fall into a singular category (that of negative/restrictive expression) which includes other expressions, such as barely, scarcely, hardly, seldom, little, never, under no circumstances, at no time, etc (there are many more!)

Besides in direct questions, inversion is also used:

In short tags. "I like it!" "So do I"
In formal/emphatic conditional sentences: "Should you need further information, please call ..."
When expressing wishes starting with may: "May you find what you're searching for."
Sometimes in indirect questions, especially when the subject is too long (cannot think of an example right now, sorry!)
Sometimes (quite literary) after as, so, than: "She was very pretty, as were her sisters."

There can be other circumstances in which inversion occurs; these are the ones that came to my mind.

As for your examples, I think the first one needs a past simple because you've got a time reference (Only yesterday did I realise...). I also would put an object (it) after repeat.

I'm not a native either, so you'd probably better wait for one of them.

Giuseppe80 · Answer

Thank you very much for your aswer, Tanit, expecially for the first list you provide.
I had not included these cases:

In formal/emphatic conditional sentences: "Should you need further information, please call ..."
When expressing wishes starting with may: "May you find what you're searching for."

because they are not strictly affirmative sentences. They express a possibility or a wish.

Neither:

In short tags. "I like it!" "So do I"
Sometimes (quite literary) after as, so, than: "She was very pretty, as were her sisters."

because I think that here the reason of the inversion is the opposition topic-comment. ("I like it" is about like it or not, the new information provided by the other speaker is not a new verb, is the new subject 'I'. And the same goes with the sisters: they are not talking about the sisters, the topic is 'her' beauty, then the beauty remains the topic and the new information is that also her sisters are beautiful)

As for the indirect questions:

Sometimes in indirect questions, especially when the subject is too long (cannot think of an example right now, sorry!)

I think it is a simplier way to say them (they become just like direct questions. I noticed that lots of people -- in all languages -- are not very good in using subordinate clauses. They start as if they were introducing a subordinate clause, then put a main clause instead. When I was younger I was hosted by a British family in the summertime. One day my guest-father told me: "What I'll do tomorrow is: I prepare your packed lunch and leave it in the refrigerator")

Kooyeen · Answer

I agree with Tanit. Good post, Tanit!
"Only" is another of the things that require inversion, when it is at the beginning and doesn't refer to the subject.
Only my sister knows how to really annoy me <--- This is ok, "only" refers to "my sister".

Tanit · Answer

Sometimes in indirect questions, especially when the subject is too long (cannot think of an example right now, sorry!)
Ithink it is a simplier way to say them (they become just like directquestions. I noticed that lots of people -- in all languages -- are notvery good in using subordinate clauses. They start as if they wereintroducing a subordinate clause, then put a main clause instead...

Yes, I agree that sometimes we change our minds in the middle of a sentence, but I was thinking of something like:

Do you remember what the name of that woman was? (not inverted)

versus

Do you remember what was the name of that beautiful woman with long dark hair, green eyes and a fair complexion we met in John's office yesterday? (inverted because the subject -- I'm including here all of its qualifiers -- is too long)

I wonder if somebody would say:
Do you remember what the name of that beautiful woman with long dark hair, green eyes and a fair complexion we met in John's office yesterday was?
(I wouldn't ... I would forget what I was talking about!!!)

did I / can I/ have I in affirmative clauses

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