Not only ... (but also) inversion

Question

Need to check my suppositions about the legitimacy of an inverted word order in sentences with two agents sharing one common action:

I was not the only one who forgot about the meeting, everyone did.

I realize the second clause can be inverted: so did everyone, but the question concerns the first part of it.

I believe it is ungrammatical to put it the way below, however strong a stress you may put on the I subject:

Not only did I forget about the meeting, everyone did.

OR even:

Not only did I forget about the meeting, so did everyone.

Confirm or disprove, please.

I would be very much obliged for your response and, perhaps, your thoughts about why it sounds so wrong (if it does, of course).

Thank you very much in advance,

YETY

PS Will the change of the syntax in the first part to I was not the only one TO FORGET about the meeting affect the tense in the everyone did part?

YETYland · Accepted Answer

BTW,

Just as an afterthought:

Not was I the only one to forget ..., so did everyone!

I seem to have done it, right?

YETY

AlpheccaStars · Answer

Not only did I forget about the meeting, (but) I forgot it was our twenty-fifth anniversary. There were many senior moments yesterday.

Fronting a sentence with a negative adverb can trigger an inversion. The subject need not be stressed.

The tense of both clauses is simple past.

If the second clause has a different subject, you can stress the first subject to indicate the contrasting element. These are OK:

Not only did I forget about the meeting, everyone did.

OR even:

Not only did I forget about the meeting, so did everyone.

Anonymous · Answer

Neither are incorrect

Not only did I forget about the meeting, everyone did. emphasises that you forgot

OR even:

Not only did I forget about the meeting, so did everyone. emphasises everyone including you forgot

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