Analyzing the Grammatical Error in the Sentence

The question asks us to identify the segment within the given sentence that contains a grammatical error. Let's examine the sentence provided:

"The Commonwealth Games had a grand opening ceremony with spectacular cultural performings."

Identifying the Incorrect Segment

We need to look closely at each part of the sentence and consider the options provided. The options highlight specific segments:

1. cultural performings
2. a grand opening
3. with spectacular
4. The Commonwealth Games had

Let's analyze each segment in the context of the full sentence.

Detailed Analysis of Sentence Segments

• "The Commonwealth Games had": This segment acts as the subject ("The Commonwealth Games") and the main verb ("had"). This structure is grammatically correct for introducing what the Games had (an opening ceremony).
• "a grand opening": This phrase describes the nature of the opening ceremony. "Grand" is an adjective modifying "opening" (which functions as part of the noun phrase "opening ceremony"). This is grammatically correct.
• "with spectacular": This starts a prepositional phrase indicating how the ceremony was conducted or what it included. "With" is a preposition, and "spectacular" is an adjective modifying the noun that follows it. This part itself is grammatically correct in structure, depending on the following word.
• "cultural performings": This phrase follows "with spectacular cultural". "Spectacular" is an adjective modifying "cultural performings". "Cultural" is also acting as an adjective here, describing the type of "performings". The word "performings" is the key part to examine. Is "performings" the correct noun form needed here?

Pinpointing the Grammatical Error

The error lies in the use of the word "performings". While "performing" can be a gerund (a verb form ending in -ing used as a noun, e.g., "Performing is fun"), or part of a continuous verb tense or participle, in the context of describing multiple acts or shows presented at an event like an opening ceremony, the correct plural noun is "performances".

Therefore, "cultural performings" should be "cultural performances".

Correcting the Sentence

The grammatically correct sentence would be:

"The Commonwealth Games had a grand opening ceremony with spectacular cultural performances."

Based on our analysis, the segment containing the grammatical error is "cultural performings".

Conclusion

The grammatical error is found in the segment "cultural performings" because the noun form "performings" is incorrectly used instead of "performances".

Revision Table: Common Noun Errors

Additional Information: Nouns and Their Forms

Nouns are words that represent a person, place, thing, or idea. They have different forms depending on their usage, particularly singular and plural forms. Some nouns have irregular plural forms, and some nouns are considered uncountable, meaning they don't typically have a plural form used with numbers (e.g., 'water', 'information', 'advice').

In this sentence, we need a countable plural noun to refer to the individual cultural acts presented at the ceremony. "Performance" is a countable noun, and its plural form is "performances". The word "performing" can be a gerund or a participle, but it is not the standard plural noun needed in this context to mean 'acts' or 'shows'.