Question

Transform sentences with 'as soon as' to sentences with 'no sooner than'.
As soon as Jake went into the room, one of the robbers attacked him.
(a)No sooner had Jake gone into the room then one of the robbers attacked him.
(b)No sooner had Jake gone into the room than one of the robbers attacked him.
(c)No sooner had Jake went into the room than one of the robbers attacked him.
(d)No sooner did Jake went into the room than one of the robbers attacked him.

Answer 1

Hint: Read the given sentence and try to figure out the information it is trying to deliver. Now go through the options, read each sentence and see if they deliver the same meaning as the given sentence or not. Eliminate the undesired options, you will have your answer.

Complete answer: ‘No sooner than’ is a conjunction that is used to indicate an action that took place immediately after the first action.‘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-
(i)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
(ii)We use the past tense form of the verb with ‘no sooner than’.
In the given question- We can conclude that no sooner had Jake gone into the room than one of the robbers attacked him. Here, the second act of the robbers attacking Jake happened immediately after the first action.
Now, let’s examine the given options-
(a)‘No sooner had Jake gone into the room then one of the robbers attacked him’ is an incorrect option because it lacks the use of ‘than’.
(b)‘No sooner had Jake gone into the room than one of the robbers attacked him’ is the correct option because we can see the accurate use of ‘no sooner than’.
(c)‘No sooner had Jake went into the room than one of the robbers attacked him’ is an incorrect option because we cannot use the simple past tense with an auxiliary verb.
(d)‘No sooner did Jake went into the room than one of the robbers attacked him’ is an incorrect option because we cannot use ‘did’ with ‘no sooner than’.
The correct answer is Option ‘b’.

Note: Always remember that we use the past perfect form (had + 3rd form/past participle form of the verb) with ‘no sooner than’. It can be used only in sentences where two actions are taking place and it should never be followed by the word ‘when’.