[Grammar] Under the tree he was / was he lying.

1. Under the tree he was lying.

2. Under the tree was he lying.


I wonder which one is grammatical.

Neither is natural. He was lying under the tree is natural.

5jj said:

Neither is natural. He was lying under the tree is natural.

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That's true, but I've heard that if an adverbial phrase is placed at the beginning of a sentence

for an emphasis, there occurs an inversion between a subject and a verb.

wotcha said:

1. Under the tree he was lying.

2. Under the tree was he lying.


I wonder which one is grammatical.

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They are both grammatically correct in literary or poetic usage.

Rover