Direction: The following sentence has been divided into parts. One of them contains an error. Select the part that contains the error from the given options. The Committee agreed / that small businesses / has been adversely affected / by COVID19.
has been adversely affected
This question requires identifying a grammatical error within a given sentence. We need to examine each part of the sentence to find the incorrect usage, focusing on subject-verb agreement.
Identifying the Grammatical Error in the Sentence
The sentence provided is: "The Committee agreed / that small businesses / has been adversely affected / by COVID19." Let's break down the sentence and analyze each segment:
- Part 1: "The Committee agreed" - This part introduces the subject ("The Committee") and the main verb ("agreed"). The committee is a collective noun, and the past tense verb "agreed" is suitable here.
- Part 2: "that small businesses" - This part introduces a subordinate clause. "that" acts as a conjunction, and "small businesses" is the subject of the subordinate clause. "Businesses" is a plural noun.
- Part 3: "has been adversely affected" - This part contains the verb phrase for the subordinate clause. The subject is "small businesses" (plural). The verb used is "has been", which is singular. This indicates a potential subject-verb agreement error.
- Part 4: "by COVID19" - This part acts as a prepositional phrase indicating the cause. "by COVID-19" (standard spelling) is grammatically correct in this context.
Understanding Subject-Verb Agreement
A fundamental rule in English grammar is that the verb must agree in number with its subject. This means a singular subject takes a singular verb, and a plural subject takes a plural verb.
- In the subordinate clause "that small businesses has been adversely affected", the subject is "small businesses".
- "Small businesses" is plural.
- The verb phrase used is "has been adversely affected". The auxiliary verb "has" is singular.
- Therefore, there is a mismatch: a plural subject ("small businesses") is paired with a singular verb ("has").
Correcting the Verb Phrase
To correct the sentence, the verb must agree with the plural subject "small businesses". The plural form of the auxiliary verb "has" is "have".
The corrected verb phrase should be: "have been adversely affected".
The corrected sentence would read: "The Committee agreed that small businesses have been adversely affected by COVID-19."
Conclusion on the Error Location
The error lies in the verb form used for the plural subject "small businesses". The phrase "has been adversely affected" incorrectly uses the singular verb "has". This corresponds to the second option provided.
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Important Questions from Error Spotting
The following question has a sentence with three underlined parts labelled (a), (b) and (c). Read each sentence to find out whether there is any error in any underlined part and indicate your response against the corresponding letter i.e., (a) or (b) or (c). If you find no error, your response should be indicated as (d).
It is identification with the audience(a)that makes one come home from the play so much more(b)satisfied than one ever is after merely passive enjoyment of the show.(c) No error.(d)
The following question has a sentence with four parts labelled (a), (b), (c), and (d). Read each sentence to find out whether there is an error in any part and indicate your response against the corresponding letter i.e., (a) or (b) or (c). If you find no error, your response should be indicated as (d).
CV Raman was one of the greatest sons of India (a) who has earned everlasting fame (b) for scientific researches. (c) No error. (d)
The following question has a sentence with three underlined parts labelled (a), (b) and (c). Read each sentence to find out whether there is any error in any underlined part and indicate your response against the corresponding letter i.e., (a) or (b) or (c). If you find no error, your response should be indicated as (d).
This box(a)is heavy than(b) the other one.(c) No error. (d)
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Thewriter does not have the freedom (a) to choose his own themes, (b) society thrusts them on him (c) No error. (d)
The following question has a sentence with three underlined parts labelled (a), (b) and (c). Read each sentence to find out whether there is an error in any underlined part and indicate your response against the corresponding letter i.e., (a) or (b) or (c). If you find no error, your response should be indicated as (d).
No one knows (a) why he did it, (b) or who was behind his doing it.(c) No error. (d)
