Inversion With Other Types of Verb
There are certain sentence patterns in English in which subject–verb inversion takes place where the verb is not restricted to an auxiliary verb. Here the subject may invert with certain main verbs, e.g. After the pleasure comes the pain, or with a chain of verbs, e.g. In the box will be a bottle. These are described in the article on subject-verb inversion. Further, inversion was not limited to auxiliaries in older forms of English. Examples of non-auxiliary verbs being used in typical subject–auxiliary inversion patterns may be found in older texts or in English written in an archaic style:
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- Know you what it is to be a child? (Francis Thompson)
The verb have, when used to denote broadly defined possession (and hence not as an auxiliary), is still sometimes used in this way in modern standard English:
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- Have you any idea what this would cost?
Read more about this topic: Subject-auxiliary Inversion
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