Choose the most appropriate answer and fill in the blank. Hardly _______ drunk…
20252024
Choose the most appropriate answer and fill in the blank.
Hardly _______ drunk the magic liquid when she began to see everything in strange and vivid colours.
- A.
she had
- B.
had she
- C.
has she
- D.
she had had
Attempted by 435 students.
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: B
Correct answer: had she
Why this is correct:
When a sentence begins with negative or limiting adverbials such as 'Hardly' or 'Scarcely', subject and auxiliary verb invert: auxiliary + subject + main verb. Because the action of drinking was completed before the later past action ('began'), use the past perfect: had + past participle.
Example: Hardly had I seen the thief when he started running.
Applied here, the correct sentence is: Hardly had she drunk the magic liquid when she began to see everything in strange and vivid colours.
she had — Incorrect because it keeps the subject before the auxiliary; inversion is required after 'Hardly'.
has she — Incorrect because present perfect ('has') does not match the sequence of past events; past perfect ('had') is needed here.
she had had — Incorrect because it retains wrong word order and uses 'had had', which is not the appropriate form for the verb 'drink' in this context.