Question

Fill in the blank with the most suitable adverb:
He had ____ reached the metro station when the metro started.
A) Near
B) Fairly
C) Still
D) Hardly

Answer 1

Hint: A word or phrase that modifies a noun, adjective, another adverb, determiner, clause, preposition, or sentence is referred to as an adverb. Adverbs are used to express things like how?, when?, where?, and to what extent? Adverbs are used to express things like manner, location, time, frequency, degree, level of certainty, and so on.

Complete answer:
A word that modifies (describes) a verb (he sings loudly), an adjective (very tall), another adverb (ended too quickly), or even a whole sentence is called an adverb (Fortunately, I had brought an umbrella). While many adverbs end in -ly, some (such as fast) have the same appearance as their adjective equivalents.
Example:
Use of the adverb ‘Early’: She arrived early for the conference.
Use of adverb ‘First’: When I bake, I start with cookies first.
Use of adverb ‘last’: When I sweep, I finish with the laundry last.

In the above sentence, we have to use an adverb of manner, a manner adverb describes how you perform a task. Here, we have to tell the manner in which the person reached the station. Examples of adverbs of manners are: quickly, softly, beautifully, hardly, etc.

Now, let us look at the given options:
A) Near: This option is incorrect because the adverb ‘near’ is used to denote a place, for example: She lives near my school, whereas we have to describe the manner in which he reached the station.
B) Fairly: This option is incorrect because 'Fairly' is a manner adverb, but it does not explain how he arrived at the station in a proper manner. Use of fairly: fairly heavy rain.
C) Still: This option is incorrect because 'Still' means until the specified period has passed. The metro had not yet begun, i.e. until the time specified in the sentence; it began just as he arrived at the station. So, we cannot use it in the above sentence. For example: She is still doing her work.
D) Hardly: This is the correct option. We must choose the appropriate adverb to explain how he arrived at the metro station when the train arrived. 'Hardly' means "barely." This word perfectly explains how he arrived at the metro station when it first began running.

Thus, the correct answer is option ‘D’ i.e, Hardly.

Note: Various types of adverbs in English are:
- Adverbs of degree provide additional information about the verb's intensity in the sentence.
- The frequency adverbs tell us how frequently the verb occurs.
- Adverbs of manners describe how or in what way something was done.
- Adverbs of place provide additional information about the location of the verb.
- Adverbs of time describe when the action of the verb occurred.