His wrongdoing was completely exposed, but not once he apologised for his actions.

Question

His wrongdoing was completely exposed, but not once he apologised for his actions. Option 1: not once did he apologise Option 2: never he made an apology Option 3: not once did he give apology Option 4: not once he made an apology

AfterBoards · Accepted Answer

This question tests **inversion after negative adverbials**. When you start a sentence with negative words like "not once," "never," or "rarely," English demands you flip the usual word order—like doing a grammatical backflip! The auxiliary verb jumps in front of the subject. Think of it like "Never have I seen such chaos!" instead of the awkward "Never I have seen such chaos!" Option 1 → ✓ Perfect inversion: "did" leaps before "he" like a grammatical gymnast. Option 2 → ✗ Missing inversion after "never"—sounds like broken robot English. Option 3 → ✗ Good inversion, but forgot "an" before "apology"—almost there! Option 4 → ✗ No inversion after "not once"—sounds clunky and unnatural.

IPMAT Indore (VA) PYQs

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