Choose the Correct - Incorrect Sentence Questions and Answers

Answer: C

Correct answer: He will not pay unless he is compelled

Unless already means if not, so the clause it introduces stays positive and in the present tense even though the main clause is future.

Why the others fail:

• unless he is not compelled - a double negative, which says the opposite of what is meant.
• unless he will be compelled - a clause of condition or time does not take will.
• till he is compelled - till marks time, not condition, and changes the meaning.

Answer: A

It should read did you not throw.

Did already carries the past tense, so the main verb stays in the base form. Threw is the past tense and thrown the past participle; neither can follow did.

Answer: C

It should read to rise to.

To rise to the occasion is the idiom - to meet a demand well. Rise from would mean to get up out of it, which is not the sense.

Answer: B

Correct answer: I went to the bank yesterday to collect the pass book.

English word order in a simple statement is verb, then place, then time, then purpose. This sentence follows it exactly.

Why the others fail:

• I went yesterday to the bank - the time adverb is wedged between the verb and its destination.
• Yesterday to collect the pass-book I went to the bank - two adverbials are stacked ahead of the subject.
• To collect the pass-book yesterday, I went to the bank - yesterday now attaches to the collecting rather than to the going.

Answer: A

Correct answer: Our friends left in an imported car the hill station where they had been staying for quite some time.

In an imported car tells us how they left, so it stays with left, and where they had been staying stays with hill station. Both modifiers touch what they modify.

Why the others fail:

• Putting the car between hill station and where makes it look as though they had been staying in the car.
• Putting the car at the very end does the same thing more strongly.
• Our friends in an imported car left… - this describes the friends rather than the leaving, as though they were friends who live in a car.

Answer: D

It should read while cleaning.

The two actions were simultaneous and share a subject, so the reduced clause while cleaning is the neat form. As he cleans puts a present tense beside the past found, which cannot stand.

Answer: D

Correct answer: He has invited me for dinner.

One is invited to a meal, not for it. For would name the purpose of the invitation rather than the event: he invited me to dinner.

The other three are sound:

• He has no desire for fame - desire for is the standard collocation.
• I intend going to Calcutta - intend takes either a gerund or a to-infinitive.
• He is too miserly to part with his money - part with is correct for giving something up.

Answer: C

Correct answer: She did nothing but sang.

After nothing but following a form of do, the verb takes the bare infinitive: she did nothing but sing.

The other three are sound:

• Politics is a dirty game - a subject name in -ics is singular.
• Twenty miles is a long distance - a measured quantity is treated as one thing.
• His father is an S.D.O. - an is right because the letter S is sounded ess.

Answer: D

Correct answer: No sooner had the dividend been declared than the notices were prepared for mailing.

No sooner is paired with than, and because it opens the sentence the auxiliary must come before the subject: no sooner had the dividend been declared.

Why the others fail:

• Since the dividend being declared than… - no finite verb, and than has no comparative to answer.
• Scarcely had… than - scarcely pairs with when, not than.
• They had no sooner declared the dividend when… - the same pairing error in reverse.

Answer: C

Correct answer: He reached to his destination.

Reach, in the sense of arriving at a place, is transitive and takes no preposition: he reached his destination.

The other three are sound:

• He accompanied me to the park - accompany takes a direct object, with to marking the destination.
• Never have I heard of such a thing - correct inversion after a negative opening.
• He need not come to me - need as a modal takes the bare infinitive.