Choose the Correct - Incorrect Sentence Questions and Answers

Answer: B

Correct answer: The headmaster testified the boy's ability.

Testify is intransitive in this sense and takes to: the headmaster testified to the boy's ability.

The other three are sound:

• He succumbed to his injuries - succumb to is correct.
• These plants are indigenous to India - indigenous to is correct.
• Mr Ram's statement was tantamount to a confession - tantamount to is correct.

Answer: D

Correct answer: Each of the candidates was given a separate room.

“Each” is singular and governs the verb, so the correct form is “was given”, while the noun after “of” must be plural: “the candidates”. The remaining options fail on one or other of these two points.

Answer: A

Correct answer: I prefer to read than to write.

Prefer is followed by to, not than, and the two things compared must take the same form: I prefer reading to writing. With infinitives the idiom is I would rather read than write.

The other three are sound:

• Each student must bring his pen and paper - each is singular.
• Several years have passed since I saw you - the past simple after since is correct.
• I have purchased a pair of socks - correct.

Answer: D

Correct answer: Since the report lacked needed information it was of no use to them.

Since gives the cause, lacked is a plain past tense, and was of no use is a correct idiom.

Why the others fail:

• because there was no needed information - needed hangs without a reference.
• it would have not been useful - a conditional where a statement of fact is needed, and the negative is misplaced.
• it was not real useful - real is an adjective being used to modify another adjective; it should be really.

Answer: C

Correct answer: Many a glorious deeds were done.

Many a is always followed by a singular noun and a singular verb, however plural the sense feels. The sentence should read many a glorious deed was done.

The other three are sound:

• Our followers are but a handful - but here means only.
• Neither he nor I was there - with neither… nor the verb agrees with the nearer subject, I.
• Everyone of the boys loves to ride - everyone is singular.

Answer: A

Correct answer: He was hung for murder.

Hang has two past participles. Pictures and curtains are hung; a person executed on a gallows is hanged.

The other three are sound:

• I offered him a chair to sit on - the preposition is needed after the infinitive.
• Let's not intrude on his privacy - intrude on is correct.
• You should comply with the rules - comply with is correct.

Answer: C

Correct answer: The errors in the typed reports were so numerous that they could hardly be overlooked.

So… that is correctly paired, the verb agrees with the plural errors, and the passive be overlooked is properly formed.

Why the others fail:

• The typist had corrected the errors had they known… - a singular subject with a plural pronoun, and the conditional halves are the wrong way round.
• the typists whom they believed had made… - the pronoun is the subject of had made, so it must be who.
• had they of known - of for have is a spoken slip, not written English.

Answer: B

Correct answer: It is a pleasure to see an alligator as long as 90 feet basking in the sunshine on a river bank.

As long as 90 feet describes the alligator, so it must sit next to alligator. Wherever else it goes it attaches to the nearest noun and says something absurd - a 90-foot sunshine, a 90-foot river bank.

Why the others fail:

• It is pleasure - the article is missing; the idiom is it is a pleasure. The measure is also stranded at the end, where it modifies river bank.
• Placing the phrase after sunshine makes the sunshine ninety feet long.
• Placing it after basking makes it modify the verb, which is meaningless.

Answer: B

Correct answer: I don't remember to have met you before.

Remember + infinitive means recalling a duty still to be done; remember + gerund means recalling something already done. Here the meeting is past, so it must be I don't remember meeting you before.

The other three are sound:

• On entering the room I found the light quite dim - correct.
• We got into the train at last - correct.
• They fought to the last man - correct.