Sentence rewriten

[Belly T]

Sorry, but my teacher gave me an exercise:
Immediately after his arrival things went wrong
Rewrite it, start with "Hardly"

[JSmiley]

we don't do your homework for you!

try using past perfect:

Hardly had he.....

good luck

[Belly T]

Ah, nah, that's not the homework. I knew what he had corrected but just want to know what your ideas are. Because there's something I not understand in his correction, but that's day the time's run out. So that's why I have to ask you guy. B/c this Friday here comes my test!

[Belly T]

Akay, if you guys don't believe me. I'll show you the correction:
Hardly had he arrived when things went wrong
I don't know why whe here to use " when"
Thanks JSmiley, it's mistype :D

[JSmiley]

oh... okay then:

'hardly had he arrived when things went wrong."

hardly had he arrived ....
... is past perfect, meaning it talks about a specific point in the past. We use the word 'when' to reference that specific time and connect it to things going wrong.

Q:When did things go wrong?
A:Hardly a moment after he arrived!

hope that helps.

here's a sentence with a parrallel form:

Big, sweet grapes are what I like.

EDIT/WONDERING: would I be correct in calling this a 'rhetorical' form?

[Belly T]

Okay, and how about this:
He got down to writting the letter as soon as he returned from his walk
Here is my job:
->No sooner did he return from his walk than he got down to writing
Ah, I though it was wrong b/c "No sooner" often goes with Past perfect, doesn't it?

[JSmiley]

Well, I personally would probably say:

No sooner had he got home than he started writing the letter.

Which means I would probably use the past perfect, but both are okay, I think. Hehehehe, thats a pretty tricky bit that I never thought about, even though I use it sometimes. AFAIK, "no sooner" is not tied to any tense, except that, being a comparison, you must use 'than' with it.