Grammaire · C1
Inversion after negative adverbials
When a negative or limiting adverbial comes first in a sentence, English inverts the subject and the auxiliary, exactly as it does in a question. Never have I seen anything like it. Not only did he miss the deadline, he never explained why. This is a formal, emphatic structure, and it is tested heavily at C1.
Normally an English statement runs subject, then verb. Put a negative adverbial at the front and that order flips: the auxiliary jumps in front of the subject.
The adverbials that trigger it are the negative and the limiting ones: never, rarely, seldom, hardly, no sooner, not only, not until, little, at no time, under no circumstances, only then, only after, only by.
If there is no auxiliary in the sentence already, use do, does or did, exactly as you would in a question. Rarely does a first novel sell so well.
Little did she know is a fixed and common example, and little in that construction means "not at all".
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Question 1 sur 12
Not only the deadline, he never explained why.