Choose the correct verb form: 'Hardly had I stepped out of the house ________ it began to rain heavily.'

Subject: General English (सामान्य अंग्रेजी)

Topic: Tenses & Sequence of Tenses

Options:

1. Option A: when
2. Option B: than
3. Option C: then
4. Option D: while
5. Option E: Question unattempted / अनुत्तरित प्रश्न

Correct Answer:

Option A: when

Explanation:

The correlative conjunction pairing for 'Hardly had...' and 'Scarcely had...' is always 'when' (whereas 'No sooner had...' is followed by 'than').