He hardly ____ say anything more since we know all about it.
A. needs B. need C. need to D. needn’t
Thanks a lot
Go for B. "need" is a marginal modal, which means it can be constructed either as a main verb or a modal verb. The modal construction is restricted to non-assertive contexts, ie mainly to negative and interrogative sentences, whereas the main verb sonstruction (needs to) can almost always be used. There is no such option as "needs to", which means there has to be a "need" option, an example of modal construction. When do we use the modal construction? In negative and in interrogative sentences. Our sentence is none of these if we only take the sentence at face value. However, we have the word "hardly", a semi-negative word, in this sentence, which carries negative import and which assigns negative value to the sentence.
He hardly need say anything more since we know all about it. :tick:
He hardly need
s to say anything more since we know all about it. :tick: -- There is no such option.