Question

Transform sentences with ‘as soon as’ to sentences with ‘no sooner than’.
As soon as they met, they became best friends.

a)No sooner did they meet then they became best friends.
b)No sooner did they meet than they became best friends.
c)No sooner does they meet than they became best friends.
d)No sooner do they meet than they became best friends.

Answer 1

Hint: ‘No sooner than’ is used to indicate an action that took place immediately after the first action.

Complete answer:

As given in the hint, ‘no sooner than’ can be positioned at the beginning of a sentence.
We need to focus on certain points while using ‘no sooner than’ in a sentence-
1)Whenever we place ‘no sooner than’ at the beginning of a sentence, we reverse the order of the subject and the auxiliary verb.
Example- No sooner had they started their race than it started to rain. Here, we have constructed the sentence in the form- No sooner + auxiliary verb + subject + main verb
2)We use the past tense form of the verb with ‘no sooner than’.
In the above question: We know that the second act of becoming best friends happened immediately after the first action of the meeting.

Let’s examine the given options-

a)There is no use of ‘than’. Hence, it is an incorrect option.
b)The given sentence has been constructed in the past tense form and the positions of the auxiliary verb ‘did’ and subject ‘they’ have been inverted. Hence, it is the correct option.
c)We cannot use the present tense form of the verb. Hence, it is an incorrect option.
d)We cannot use the present tense form of the verb. Hence, it is an incorrect option.

Note: We tend to use the past perfect form (had + 3rd form of the verb) with ‘no sooner than’.