Is it correct to invert the subordinate sentence in English? For instance:
When the time comes, so shall we reign the land!
If it is correct, what is the rule? Or is it only in old English?
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2I am confused about what you are referring to. Are you talking about the inverted verb-subject order in the second clause?– KosmonautCommented Mar 5, 2011 at 15:34
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yes, the inverted verb-subject order.– sterzCommented Mar 6, 2011 at 4:54
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But here the first clause is subordinate. The inverted one is the main clause.– Jason OrendorffCommented Apr 15, 2011 at 18:06
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''Full inches seven??'' Is this an archaic inversion– Ariana's eyelashCommented Aug 18, 2019 at 12:35
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This does not answer the question. And there is no inversion involved at all.– Janus Bahs JacquetCommented Aug 18, 2019 at 13:41
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1 Answer
That is an archaic construction (and not limited to subordinate clauses/sentences); one wouldn't use it today except in dialog in a period piece.
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2Yes -- it's a quotation from Shakespeare's Macbeth (Act IV, Scene I).– byeCommented Mar 5, 2011 at 7:07
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Also archaic, I'm afraid. (Even that meaning of the word so only holds in certain specific phrases.) Old forms hold on in frequently-used words and phrases even as the world changes around them. There are a few individual idiomatic phrases you just have to know -- like so do I and how to pluralize ox. There is no general rule of grammar to apply.– byeCommented Mar 5, 2011 at 23:14
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1@Jason Orendorff: Indeed - there are plenty more situations were inversion happens - examples similar to "so" (Nor do I; As do I; Never have I...); questions (as you mention); fronted adverbials (In the house lives an old woman); comparatives ("Better still are the ones that follow") and so on. Inversion in general is far from archaic.– psmearsCommented Jun 29, 2011 at 17:27