[Grammar] Is it a correct sentence?

[rakib681988]

Dear Friends,

Today I have just found a sentence in my Economics book. And it’s an American book. But I really cannot understand what the grammatical structure of this sentence is? And I have never seen such kind of sentence. Please help me. Here is the sentence--

" Only if the marginal benefit and cost are as close as possible to being equal will the community have the optimal number of schools"

My first question is “ is this possible for me to write this sentence this way without changing the actual meaning of the above sentence” - Only if the marginal benefit and cost are as close as possible to being equal, the community will have the optimal number of schools"?

My second question is what the grammatical structure of this sentence is?

Friend could you please refer me a book or few books for knowing the meaning of this kinds of sentence more better?

Waiting for your valuable reply...................................

[Anglika]

Welcome to the forums.

It is an inverted sentence, which can be rephrased as:


The community will have the optimal number of schools only if the marginal benefit and cost are as close as possible to being equal.

[Clark]

Emphatic partial inversion with a restrictive adverbial at the head of the sentence. Let me give a few simpler sentences for clarity:

Only then did I realize his true motives.
Only then was I able to make a step.

[RonBee]

Not:

more better

Just:

better