Question

Seldom ............... such a complicated problem.

• A. I encountered
• B. Have I encountered
• C. When I encountered
• D. Have I encountered

Hint:

Negative adverbs like “seldom,” “never,” “rarely” at the beginning trigger inversion: “Seldom have I...”.

Answer 1

The Correct Option is D

The adverb “seldom” is a negative adverb of frequency.
In formal English, when such adverbs begin a sentence, they require inversion of subject and verb.
The correct form becomes: “Seldom have I encountered such a complicated problem.”
Option analysis:

(A) “I encountered” – no inversion, incorrect.
(B) and (D) – same grammatically, but D is the correct placement.
(C) “When I encountered” – changes sentence structure entirely.


Hence, (D) is the correct answer.