When are you able place the subject after the verb in a sentence which is not a question?

Question

I've noticed that in the following sentence " The dormitory was completely silent, and, had he been less preoccupied, Harry have realised that the absence of Neville's usual snores meant that he was not the only one lying awake". There is an inversion of verb and subject in the second line of this paragraph and I've been always taught to tell the verb after the subject if I don't want make a question. So I don't understand because It's said "...; had he been less preoccupied...". I'd be very grateful to you if you could explain to me the why.
By the way maybe I have just made some mistakes. English is not my mother tongue. However I hope that you could help me.
Thank you very much.

Answer 1

Let me break down the sentence for you.

"The dormitory was completely silent, and, had he been less preoccupied, Harry would have realised that the absence of Neville's usual snores meant that he was not the only one lying awake."

First, it is actually two sentences connected with a conjunction "and"

Since you understand the first part, we will work with the second part:

"...had he been less preoccupied, Harry would have realised that the absence of Neville's usual snores meant that he was not the only one lying awake."

this is an example of a third conditional sentence.
A third conditional refers to contrary-to-fact past occurances.
The standard way of writing this sentence would be:

"If he had been less preoccupied, Harry would have realised that the absence of Neville's usual snores meant that he was not the only one lying awake."

Notice the verb follows the subject.

HOWEVER, it can be written

"...had he been less preoccupied, Harry would have realised that the absence of Neville's usual snores meant that he was not the only one lying awake."

and this is perfectly acceptible.

Answer 2

I guess I'm having trouble completely understanding your question. The verb can follow the subject, depending on the tense of the verb, but that would involve a lot of heavy technical explanation that could probably leave you more confused than you are now. I would suggest that you go to the library and get yourself a book on English grammar and it should explain the conjugation of verbs and how they are used grammatically in speech and in writing. I believe the example you've shown is correct as it is written. English is indeed a very difficult language, not only for people who were not born here, but for us natives also. I can tell you this -- verbs normally do follow the subject about 95 percent of the time in everyday speech. You're absolutely correct in your assumption. Good luck!

Answer 3

I am rather rusty on this but my feeling is that 'had he been less preoccupied' is either a conditional clause or a defining relative clause. Harry is the subject of and precedes the verb to realise.
This is really tough, when you have completed your course I suggest that you teach English to those lazy English people who cannot be bothered to learn their own language.
Good Luck


Presumably: 'Harry WOULD have realised that the absence etc.'

Answer 4

I'm not completely understanding your additional comments, but to answer here's an answer to your question:

Subjects can follow a verb in sentences beginning with "here" or "there."

Example #1: Here is the food you ordered. (In this sentence, "is" is the verb and "food" is the subject.)

Example #2: There are too many cars in the parking lot. (In this sentence, "are" is the verb and "cars" is the subject.)

Hope this helps!

Answer 5

When you're Yoda.

Answer 6

No thank you