Instead of 'Only later did I realize...' I would have said 'Only later I relized'

[Maris]

English Language Tests, Intermediate level

ESL/EFL Test #706 "English Slang Idioms (448)", question 9

"At first, his story seemed to make sense, so it threw me .......... Only later did I realize that he was coming back into the building after work to steal instead of stealing during his shift," Bob said to the police.

(a) back
(b) away
(c) off
(d) out

English Language Tests, Intermediate level

ESL/EFL Test #706 "English Slang Idioms (448)", answer 9

"At first, his story seemed to make sense, so it threw me off. Only later did I realize that he was coming back into the building after work to steal instead of stealing during his shift," Bob said to the police.

Correct answer: (c) off

Your answer was: incorrect
"At first, his story seemed to make sense, so it threw me out. Only later did I realize that he was coming back into the building after work to steal instead of stealing during his shift," Bob said to the police.
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Instead of "Only later did I realize..." I would have said "Only later I relized...", would it have been correct?

Maris

[Alan]

Hi Maris,

It is customary to invert subject and verb in a sentence which begins with constructions like: hardly/scarcely/rarely/only then/later/once and so on. If you don't want 'only later' at the beginning of the sentence, you can write the sentence like this: It was only later that I realised/I realised only later that ...

Alan
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English as a Second Language
You can read my ESL story Present Simple