Choose the Correct - Incorrect Sentence Questions and Answers

Answer: B

It should read agonises me most.

What is the subject of the clause, so the verb follows directly without the auxiliary does - the same reason one writes what happened, not what did happen, in a statement. Most then modifies the verb.

Answer: A

Correct answer: I shall inform them this.

Inform takes a person as its object and the matter after of or about: I shall inform them of this. It cannot take two objects as tell can.

The other three are sound:

• He boarded the train - board is transitive and needs no preposition.
• A bunch of keys has been lost - the subject is bunch, so the verb is singular.
• Ask him why he wastes his time - correct indirect question order.

Answer: D

Correct answer: Why did you give false witness ?

The fixed expression is bear false witness. Give collocates with evidence, not with witness.

The other three are sound:

• If it had not been for your folly, you could have been a partner - a correct third conditional.
• The storm having ceased, the sun came out - a correct absolute construction.
• He stipulated for immediate supply of the articles - stipulate for is correct.

Answer: B

Correct answer: His trousers is very dirty.

Trousers is one of the garment nouns that exist only in the plural - like scissors and spectacles - so it takes a plural verb: his trousers are very dirty.

The other three are sound:

• There are not any books on the table - correct.
• The roads of Delhi are wider than those of Calcutta - those keeps the comparison between like things.
• I walk faster than you - correct.

Answer: C

Correct answer: Owing to lack of fuel, many works must close if the strike lasts over the weekend.

Owing to lack of fuel is the reason and is placed at the front, where it governs the whole sentence; the condition then follows the clause it qualifies.

Why the others fail:

• The first option separates owing to lack of fuel from what it explains, and misspells strike.
• The second wedges the reason between the condition and its result.
• Having the strike lasting to the weekend - a participle with no subject, and lasting to is not idiomatic.

Answer: A

Correct answer: The Dacoits robbed my belongings.

Rob takes the victim as its object and the thing taken after of: the dacoits robbed me of my belongings. It is steal that takes the goods as object.

The other three are sound:

• The first two pages of this book are torn - the ordinal precedes the cardinal.
• He came to us every third day - correct.
• He atoned for the sin by giving alms to the poor - atone for is correct.

Answer: D

Correct answer: The thief divested the child from all her jewels.

Divest takes of: one divests a person of something. The same pattern governs rob, deprive and relieve.

The other three are sound:

• Nothing but funny stories delights him - the subject is nothing, so the verb is singular.
• I cannot raise this lid - raise is transitive and correctly used.
• This is the book that I want - correct.

Answer: C

It should read cannot always express.

One conveys a message but expresses oneself; convey ourselves is not idiomatic. Cannot is also written as one word in standard usage.

Answer: A

Correct answer: For many of us our first recollection of the world has been the early age of only three or four years.

The subject is our first recollection and the complement is the age at which it occurred, which is the only arrangement that makes sense of the two ideas.

Why the others fail:

• The early age… would begin our first recollection - an age cannot begin a recollection.
• …would be early age of three or four years - the article is missing and would makes a plain fact conditional.
• …our first recollection of the world being the early age… - a participle where a finite verb is needed, so there is no main clause.

Answer: C

It should read had you told.

Inverting had is the way to form a third conditional without if - had you told me is exactly if you had told me. Been cannot stand between had and told, and if you would have is never correct in the if-clause.