Question

Choose the correct option to fill in the blank:
No sooner did the thief see the police ______ he ran away.
a. then
b. than
c. so
d. because

Answer 1

Hint: The phrasal conjunctions have pre-decided constructions. Only one option can complete the phrase ‘no sooner - _____’.

Complete answer:
Conjunctions are words that join words and phrases together. For example, words such as ‘and’, ‘because’, etc, are all conjunctions.

They can be used to join the following sentences:
He is thirsty. He is thirsty.
This can be said as ‘He is hungry and thirsty.’

The phrase ‘no sooner - than’ is used to convey that the second event mentioned happens immediately after the first. It is often used with a form of the past tense and it joins two sentences together. So, it is called phrasal conjunction.

Now, we know what the phrase means. Let’s now look at the options one by one:

a). then - The word ‘then’ is conjunction. However, it does not go with the phrase ‘no sooner - ….’. So, this is an incorrect option.

b). than - The word ‘than’ is the second half of the conjunction ‘no sooner - …..’. It is also an independent conjunction. So, this is the correct option.

c). so - The word ‘so’ is also a conjunction, however, it cannot be used with the given phrase. That would be grammatically incorrect. So, this is an incorrect option.
d). because - The word ‘because’ is also a conjunction. It is not used in tandem with ‘no sooner’. Hence, this would be grammatically unsound. So, this is an incorrect option.

Note: Complete the phrasal conjunction with the appropriate word in order to complete the sentence. The phrase ends with a concrete word, that cannot be changed.