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Heewoo Kim Posted 9 years ago
Grammar

Word order of Not only ~ but also ~

Hello, I'd like to ask you a few questions about the following sentence:Not

"Not only does it become more convenient, but so do other things as well."


Q1. Do native English speakers use such an inverted sentence after "but", preposing "so" in front of the latter sentence, as the sample sentence above? I understand that the front part, i.e. "Not only + do (aux. verb) + S + V ~," can be inverted, while the latter part, i.e. "but other things (S) + do (V, aux. verb) so as well." cannot be inverted.

Q2. In the latter part of the above question, is "do" (aux. verb) enough, instead of "do so"? I guess "do" (aux. verb) might be enough to indicate the same phrase in the former sentence, though.

I hope to hear from native English speakers.

  

Top answer

The original sentence does not work well because we are expecting the second part to describe another property of "it". This is because we naturally stress "convenient" rather than the "weak word" "it". Let me give a better example that I found randomly through Internet search: Not only do the news stories change from one hour to the next, but so do the ads.

— GPY

  • The original sentence does not work well because we are expecting the second part to describe another property of "it".
  • This is because we naturally stress "convenient" rather than the "weak word" "it".
  • Let me give a better example that I found randomly through Internet search: Not only do the news stories change from one hour to the next, but so do the ads.
  • For me, this "Not only do ...
  • " structure is acceptable.
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2 Answers
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The original sentence does not work well because we are expecting the second part to describe another property of "it". This is because we naturally stress "convenient" rather than the "weak word" "it". Let me give a better example that I found randomly through Internet search:

Not only do the news stories change from one hour to the next, but so do the ads.

For me, this "N

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"Not only does it become more convenient, but so do other things as well."

That is not good. You need parallel structures with the same subject:

Not only does it become more convenient, but it saves us money, too.

Or parallel structures with the same verb:


Not only did the iPhone 7s sell out, but the Samsung Galaxies did too.

With the Internet,

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