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Inversion

Normal word order in French and English requires that the subject be placed before the verb: 

Le chien mord son maître.

The dog bites his master.

Le sorcier fabrique une effigie.

The sorcerer makes an effigy. 

We speak about inversion, when, for whatever reason, the subject comes after the verb.  This happens in both English and French, but it is far more common in French, and can lead to serious misunderstandings. 

Am I right?

Does he believe you?

Vient-elle?

Is she coming?

C'est le maître qu'a attaqué le chien.

It's the master that the dog attacked.

More about this last case below.

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Differences

1.    Questions

English uses inversions for questions with just a few common little verbs: 

Do I?

Have you?

Will your mother come?

but not:

*Eats he?

*Rings the phone?

The asterisk precedes an ungrammatical form. 

In French, inversion in questions affects all verbs.  If the subject is a Pronoun, things are simple, 

Vient-elle?

If the following pronoun would cause two vowels to come together, an "epenthetic" -t-  is inserted, which has no meaning but changes the pronunciation: 

Fabrique-t-il une effigie? 

Does he make an effigy?

If the subject of a question is a noun, rather than a pronoun, things become more complicated: an extra pronoun is added after the verb. 

Les rapports soulèvent quelque émotion. 

The reports cause some emotion. 

Les rapports soulèvent-ils quelque émotion? 

Do the reports cause some emotion? 

There is an alternative way to ask a question, which avoids the inversion.  This uses the little phrase est-ce que.  It is extremely common, especially in spoken French, but in the written forms you'll be looking at, inversion is much more common. 

Est-ce que les rapports soulèvent quelque émotion? 

Do the reports cause some emotion? 

 

2. Inversion in relative clauses 

C'est une des régions où domine l'isolement

It's a region where isolation is common. 

Les plantes unicellulaires sont la source de protéines dont dépend la population mondiale. 

Single celled plants are the source of proteins on which the world's population depends. 

 Le saumon que mangent les Canadiens provient surtout des salmonicultures de Colombie-Britannique. 

The salmon Canadians eat comes mostly from salmon farms in B.C. 

Les Antilles constituent un archipel d'une centaine d'îles, grandes vers le nord, petites vers le Sud (les petites Antilles, dont fait partie la Guadeloupe).

In a relative clause, after a relative pronoun, other than qui, inversion is usual, though not obligatory. (You can say Le saumon que les Canadiens mangent.)  This is what happens in C'est le maître qu'a attaqué le chien, quoted above.
 

3. Inversion after initial adverb. 

In French, inversion is common when an adverb is in initial position (i.e. at the beginning of a sentence or clause), especially the adverbs peut-être, sans doute, or aussi (which means so, or therefore when it's placed at the beginning of a clause). Make sure you don't mistake these inversions for questions. 

 Aussi ne sommes-nous pas étonnées d'apprendre que... 

And so we are not surprised to learn that... 

Aussi est-on étonné tout d'abord de voir certains auteurs rejeter comme non satisfaisante cette lumineuse explication de la magie. 

So we are surprised at first to see... 

s'arrête cette protection naturelle

This is where this natural protection stops

Probablement venaient-elles aussi du monde extérieur. 

They probably also came from the external world. 

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Exercises

           
           

 

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