Guide to English grammar

On the day after that she was in the canteen at the usual time.
The path was stony. Despite that we made good progress.
Presumably she had been changed on to a later shift.
The car was a complete wreck. Incredibly, no one was hurt.

3 And these kinds of adverbial can be in front position for contrast or emphasis.

Place: It was warm and comfortable in the little cottage. Outside, it was
getting dark.

Manner Frequency

Slowly the sun sank into the Pacific. Everyone shops at the big supermarket now. Quite often the little shop is empty for half an hour at a time.

2 An object or complement in front position

1 We can sometimes put an object in front position, especially when it makes a link or a contrast with what has gone before.
Dogs I love, but cats I can't stand.
Jason deals with the post every morning. The routine letters he answers himself. The rest he passes on to the boss.
There is no inversion.
(NOT Dogs love I.)

2 We can also sometimes put a complement in front position.

They enjoyed the holiday. Best of all was the constant sunshine.
The scheme has many good points. An advantage is the low cost.
Here the subject (the low cost) is the important information and comes at the end.

3 Inversion after an adverbial

1 In this sentence the pattern is “subject + verb + adverbial of place”.
A furniture van was outside the house.
When the adverbial of place is in front position, there is inversion of the subject and the ordinary verb be.
Alan walked along Elm dale Avenue and found number sixteen without difficulty.