The are many examples of this occurring in everyday English, the most common one is in questions.
You are coming.
Are you coming?
Dad has read the paper.
Has dad read the paper?
But there are other cases. Let's see if I can summarise some of those cases.
Expressing a condition, without the if:
If I had known it was your birthday, ...
Had I known it was your birthday, ...
If you should feel hungry ...
Should you feel hungry, ...
If you were here ...
Were you here, ...
If you were to travel there, ...
Were you to travel there, ...
If he had written that letter, ...
Had he written that letter, ...
Some elliptical sentences using so, neither, nor:
Jonathan felt very tired, and Joanna did too.
Jonathan felt very tired, so did Joanna.
Jack does not like tuna, and I don't either.
Jack does not like tuna, and neither do I.
Locative inversions:
A lamp lay in the corner.
In the corner lay a lamp.
A hobbit lived in a hole in the ground.
There lived a hobbit in a hole in the ground. (with presentational 'there')
In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.
Directive inversions:
A squirrel fell out of the tree.
Out of the tree fell a squirrel.
The toasts came after the speeches.
After the speeches came the toasts.
Copular inversions:
Javier is our class representative this year.
This year, our class representative is Javier.
The sky was a vivid orange.
A vivid orange was the sky.
Quotative inversions:
"We are in it to win it", the captain said to the team.
"We are in it to win it", said the captain to the team.
Existential there:
A shark is in the water. (funny)
There is a shark in the water.
Presentational there:
An eerie silence followed after the explosion.
After the explosion there followed an eerie silence.
A body hanged.
There hanged a body.
An enormous wild boar lived in this forest.
There lived an enormous wild boar in this forest.
Sort of comparing:
The prices were so expensive that we opted to leave.
So expensive were the prices that we opted to leave.
The seafood courses were really expensive, and all the meat ones were too.
The seafood courses were really expensive, as were all the meat ones.
Negative inversions:
We covered this in quite a bit of detail in Unit 3.
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