Inversion after negative adverbs, etc.

Certain adverbs, when used at the beginning of a sentence, must be followed by auxiliary verbs (be, do, have, can must, etc.) + subject + the rest of the sentence. This kind of inversion, which may be used for particular emphasis, is typical of formal rhetoric and formal writing. It occurs after the following:

- negative or near-negative adverbs (often of time or frequency, such
as never, rarely, seldom); or adverbs having a negative effect, e.g.
little, on no account [> App 19]:

Never/Seldom has there been so much protestagainst the Bomb Little does he realizehow important this meeting is On no account must you acceptany money if he offers it The word order is, of course, normal when these adverbs do not begin a sentence:

There has never seldom been so much protest against the Bomb He little realizeshow important this meeting is

- combinations withonly (e.g. only after, only then): The pilot reassured the passengers Only then did I realizehow dangerous the situation had been

- so +adjective (+that) andsuch (+ that): So sudden was the attack(that) we had no time to escape Such was his strengththat he could bend iron bars

For normal word order with so and such [> 1.52.1].

8 Prepositions, adverb particles and phrasal verbs

General information about prepositions and adverb particles

What a preposition is and what it does

We normally use prepositions in front of nouns or noun phrases,

pronouns or gerunds to express a relationship between one person,

thing, event, etc. and another:

preposition + noun:/ gave the book to Charlie

preposition + pronoun:/ gave it to him

preposition + gerund:Charlie devotes his time to reading

Some relationships expressed by prepositions are:

Space: We ran across the field

Time: The plane landed at 4 25 precisely

Cause: Travel is cheap for us because of the strength of the dollar

Means: You unlock the door by turning the key to the right

Prepositions always have an object Even when a preposition is separated from its object, for example in questions [> 8.22, 13.31n4, 13.33] or relatives [> 1.35-38], the relationship is always there: Who(m) were you talking to just now on the phone? (= To whom ) The chair I was sitting on was very shaky (= The chair on which...)