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Must this construct necessarily take than ? Here is an example I found without it:

The workshop will start repairing the car no sooner the quotation has been accepted.

I'm not looking for an alternative way of expressing this, I'd just like to know if it's correct.

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    Yes, it must. They should have said "...as soon as the quotation has been accepted".
    – Kate Bunting
    Commented Jan 15, 2017 at 9:21
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    @KateBunting Or perhaps more likely, “The workshop will not start repairing the car until the quotation has been accepted”.
    – Janus Bahs Jacquet
    Commented Jan 15, 2017 at 10:07
  • Sincere thanks, however I'm not looking for an alternative way of expressing this, I'd just like to know if it's correct.
    – Anthony
    Commented Jan 15, 2017 at 10:27
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    No, it's not correct as written. The reason is that such comparatives have governors, one of which is the -er found in comparative adjectives like your "soon er". But it requires a complement in the form of a preposition phrase beginning with than (-er and than work as a kind of unit). Your example has the -er and the clausal complement of than (i.e. the quotation has been accepted), but is missing the all-important preposition than.
    – BillJ
    Commented Jan 15, 2017 at 11:17

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BillJ wrote in a comment:

No, it's not correct as written. The reason is that such comparatives have governors, one of which is the -er found in comparative adjectives like your "soon er". But it requires a complement in the form of a preposition phrase beginning with than (-er and than work as a kind of unit). Your example has the -er and the clausal complement of than (i.e. the quotation has been accepted), but is missing the all-important preposition than.

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