Question

Identify the correct version of the given sentence:
No sooner she left the room than her baby started to cry.

• A. No change
• B. No sooner had she left the room than her baby started to cry.
• C. No sooner she left the room then her baby started to cry.
• D. No sooner had she left the room then her baby started to cry.

Answer 1

Answer: (B)

No sooner had she left the room than her baby started to cry.

Conjunctions are words that link other words, phrases, or clauses together.

The structure no sooner is used to talk about something that happens immediately after something else. When no sooner comes at the beginning of a sentence, we use inverted word order. That means the auxiliary verb comes before the subject. The conjunction 'No sooner ---- than' is also used to denote simultaneous actions. The given sentence depicts that as soon as she left the room, her baby started to cry immediately. These two activities take place almost simultaneously. There is no real time difference between them. Thus Option B is correct. Option D, as well as Option C, can be ruled out as 'Then' indicates 'in that case'. We use 'then' with 'if' to talk about cause and effect but it cannot be used in association with 'no sooner' which is used in case of an event happening immediately after something else. When no sooner is used in the front position, we invert the order of the auxiliary verb and subject. Option A is incorrect as the auxiliary verb 'had' is missing after no sooner.