Choose the correct inverted clause:
Little _____ that their small cottage bakery would evolve into a nationwide distribution network.
Answer and explanation
Correct answer: B. did the founders realize
- Step 1: Identify the negative restrictive adverb 'Little' placed at the beginning of the sentence: this requires auxiliary inversion with the past simple auxiliary 'did'.
- Step 2: Invert 'did' before the subject 'the founders' followed by the base verb 'realize': 'Little did the founders realize...'.
Answer
did the founders realize.
Why not the others: 'the founders realized' retains standard uninverted order; 'had the founders realize' incorrectly combines past perfect auxiliary 'had' with a base verb instead of a past participle; 'the founders did realize' uses emphatic uninverted order which is ungrammatical after initial 'Little'.
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