Short answerHard1 mark
4(d)
Re-write the following sentences according to the instructions given after each. Make other changes that may be necessary, but do not change the meaning of each sentence.
As soon as the sports meet ended, the children ran on the field. (Begin: Hardly ..................)
Topic: Transformation — 'hardly'
Previous-year question practice database
Answer
Exam answer
Hardly had the sports meet ended when the children ran on the field.
Explanation
Three things must all be right.
- THE PAIRING: "Hardly" is completed by WHEN (or "before"), never by "than". Compare "No sooner... THAN". Mixing the two pairs is the commonest error, and both constructions appear across these papers.
- INVERSION: beginning with the negative adverb "Hardly" puts the auxiliary before the subject — "Hardly HAD THE SPORTS MEET ended", not "Hardly the sports meet had ended".
- TENSE: the earlier event takes the PAST PERFECT ("had ended"), the later one the simple past ("ran").
The family of openers that force inversion is worth memorising: Hardly, Scarcely, No sooner, Never, Seldom, Rarely, Not only, Little.
The same conversion appears in the 2021 paper with "No sooner", so learn the two partner words together.
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