IPMAT Indore 2023 · Verbal Ability · Question 4

The construction. The verb grieve in this impersonal pattern takes a to-infinitive:

It grieved me to hear …

And hear takes the preposition of (or about) when the object is news rather than a sound: hear of an illness, hear about an accident. You hear a noise, but you hear of an event.

So the correct completion is to hear of.

Why the others fail:

(a) in hearing — “It grieved me in hearing my friend’s illness” is ungrammatical; the pattern needs an infinitive, not a gerund phrase with in.

(b) to hear regarding — regarding is a formal preposition meaning concerning, used with nouns like your letter regarding the matter. It does not follow hear, and the register clashes.

(d) hearing regarding — compounds both errors.

Answer: Option 3

Shortcut. Two checks, each decisive on its own:

Infinitive, not gerund. It grieved/saddened/pleased me to … is the fixed pattern. That removes (a) and (d) immediately.

The right preposition after hear. News takes of or about, never regarding. That removes (b).

The transferable point: verbs carry their prepositions with them. Build a list as you revise — hear of, accuse of, comply with, differ from, indifferent to, result in. Entrance papers test these more often than any point of grammar.