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. Choose the correct options.
As soon as he reaches home, his friends call him. (Begin: Hardly.............)
Topic: Transformation — 'hardly... when'
Try it
Pick an option and check your answer. The full worked answer is below either way.
Answer
(a) Hardly does he reach home when his friends call him..
Two rules operate together, and both must be right.
FIRST, THE PAIRING. "Hardly" is always completed by WHEN (or by "before"), never by "than". Learn the two constructions side by side, because papers set them constantly and the partner words are easily swapped: HARDLY / SCARCELY ... WHEN NO SOONER ... THAN That eliminates options (b) and (d).
SECOND, INVERSION. A sentence beginning with the negative adverb "Hardly" inverts the subject and the auxiliary: "Hardly DOES HE reach...". Option (c) keeps ordinary word order and is wrong for that reason.
Option (b) also shifts the whole sentence into the past when the original is present.
The family of openers that force inversion: Hardly, Scarcely, No sooner, Never, Seldom, Rarely, Not only.
Hardly does he reach home when his friends call him..