Inverted Word Order

When we invert word order in the following case, we provide and maintain emphasis, conditional status and formal register.

Conditional to talk about the past

Normally if we're talking about the past and imagining if things were different, we use ‘if’ and then we use what we call the past perfect tense. So, ‘if I had known he was tired, I would have gone home earlier’ (I stayed there all night talking to him; I didn't know he was tired). If I'd known - I had known - he was tired, I would have gone home earlier.

There's an alternative to that we can use. Instead of saying ‘if I had known’, we can say ‘had I known’. We invert the 'had', the auxiliary verb and the subject – so our alternative to ‘if I had known’ is ‘had I known’. ‘If I had seen him, I would have spoken to him’ – ‘had I seen him I would have spoken to him’. ‘If she had got the job, she would have been happier’ – ‘had she got the job, she would have been happier’.