Learn English – Not only DID he exceed/he EXCEEDED, but he HAD also drank alcohol. (Past tense)

past-tensesentence-construction

How come sentence1 is more correct than sentence2, in terms of BETTER FIT with its relative clause?

  1. Not only DID he exceed the speed limit, but he HAD also drank alcohol. (From a website)

Vs.

  1. Not only he EXCEEDED the speed limit, but he HAD also drank alcohol. (My construction)

Both introductory clause (sentence 1 & 2) are in the past, aren't they? BUT, how come, if I were to construct a sentence, the sentence#2 would be incorrect?

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Source: Grammaring: Test your grammar #47
(scroll to reach #47)

Best Answer

Neither sentence is grammatical—or at least stylistically acceptable based on parallelism.

They can be made grammatical if you rephrase them:

Not only did he exceed the speed limit, but he [] also drank alcohol.
He not only exceeded the speed limit, but he [] also drank alcohol.

If you want to keep had you will need to make some different changes:

Not only had he exceeded the speed limit, but he had also drunk / had also been drinking alcohol.
He had not only exceeded the speed limit, but he had also drunk alcohol.


After addressing the construction of the sentences, there is really no essential difference between them in terms of meaning. (And after addressing the issue with parallelism, the second sentence is not incorrect.)

However, the first version in the question can be interpreted as having a sense of something habitual rather than referring to a one-time event.

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