Select the most appropriate option that can substitute the underlined segment in the given sentence.

The new shop that opened last week are hardly sufficient stock of the products that it advertised about.

Question

Question

This question was previously asked in

SSC CGL 2022 Tier-I Official Paper (Held On : 01 Dec 2022 Shift 4)

Answer 1

The correct answer is option 2), i.e., 'hardly had.'

Key Points

The error lies in Part (are hardly) of the sentence.
As per instructions, the remaining portion of the sentence is correct.
As the given sentence mentions 'last week' therefore the sentence should be in the past tense. From the given options we can deduce that the sentence will be in the past perfect tense.
The structure of the past perfect tense: Subject+ had+ V3+ object.
Example:
- The actors hardly had time to learn their lines before filming started.
We know that the word 'hardly' expresses a negative sense, therefore we need to use the positive form of the helping verb 'had.'
Therefore, in the erroneous part, the use of 'are hardly' in the sentence should be replaced with 'hardly had' to make it grammatically correct.
Therefore, the correct answer is Option 2.

Correct sentence: The new shop that opened last week hardly had sufficient stock of the products that it advertised about.