Select the most appropriate option that can substitute the underlined segment in the given sentence. If no substitution is required, select ‘No substitution’. No matter how hard work you, your boss will not recognise your efforts.

Correct — B.
The clause opens with No matter how, which begins a concessive clause, not a question. A clause of that kind keeps ordinary statement order: subject then verb, you work.

hard is the adverb of degree attached to that verb, and in a how-clause the graded word moves up to sit next to how: no matter how hard + you work.

Substituting option (b) gives: No matter how hard you work, your boss will not recognise your efforts.

Why the others are wrong

• (a)
  no substitution — The printed segment reads hard work you, which reads work as a noun and strands the subject at the end. That leaves the clause with no finite verb, so it cannot stand as written.
• (c)
  hardly you work — hardly is a separate negative adverb meaning barely. It would concede that you scarcely work at all, which reverses the point the sentence goes on to make about unrecognised effort.
• (d)
  work you do hard — This puts work immediately after how, so how is left with nothing to grade, and it strands hard at the end of the clause with nothing to modify.

No matter how, however and no matter what all open concessive clauses: they grant a condition and then deny its usual consequence.

Two things follow from that. The clause is a statement, so it keeps subject before verb — however hard you try, no matter what he says.

And when how is grading something, the graded adjective or adverb sits immediately after it: how hard, how quickly, how expensive. Put the verb in that slot and the clause loses the very thing how is there to measure.

Key facts

• No matter how introduces a concessive clause, which keeps statement order: subject then verb.
• When how measures a degree, the graded adjective or adverb comes immediately after it, as in how hard, how soon, how far.
• hard is an adverb in its own right, and hardly is a different word meaning barely.

Common traps

• Choosing hardly because it looks like the regular adverb form of hard
• Selecting no substitution because the printed clause passes on a fast silent reading

No directly related past PYQ was found.