Choose the Correct - Incorrect Sentence Questions and Answers

Answer: A

The sentence expressing a wish is Would that I had made contact with him before his departure.

'Would that' is a formal, literary way of saying 'I wish' or 'if only': here the speaker regrets not having contacted him. That is the use of would to express a wish or desire.

'Would you mind opening the window?' is a polite request. 'She would look at the stars for hours when she was a child' expresses a past habit, and 'She would not follow my advice' expresses refusal or unwillingness.

Answer: B

The sentence expressing a suggestion is Shall I close the door?

Shall with I or we in a question is used to offer or suggest something and to ask the listener's wishes: 'Shall I close the door?', 'Shall we go?'.

'May I close the door?' and 'Could I close the door?' ask permission. 'Will I close the door?' asks about the future, not a suggestion, and is unusual in this sense.

Answer: A

The correct sentence is He was unable to bear the cold as he was bare.

Bear as a verb means to endure or tolerate, so 'unable to bear the cold' is right. Bare as an adjective means uncovered or naked, so 'he was bare' (unclothed) is also right.

The second sentence swaps the two words. The third uses 'bare' for 'bear' (endure) and 'bear essentials' for 'bare essentials' (the basic minimum). The fourth uses 'bare the insults' where 'bear the insults' is needed.

Answer: A

The correctly punctuated sentence is “Perhaps,” cried she, “there may be such giants as you describe!”

When a reporting clause such as cried she interrupts one quoted sentence, the first part ends with a comma inside the quotation marks, the reporting clause is followed by a comma, and the second part continues in lower case because the sentence has not ended. The exclamation mark belongs to the spoken words, so it goes inside the closing quotation marks.

The second option puts the commas outside the quotes, uses a colon mid-sentence and drops the exclamation. The third mixes single and double quotes, uses a semicolon and wrongly capitalises There. The fourth has no commas around cried she and inserts a stray semicolon.

Answer: B

The correct sentence is George ran faster than I.

In formal grammar than is treated as a conjunction introducing a shortened clause: George ran faster than I (ran). The pronoun is the subject of that understood verb, so it takes the subject form I.

Than me is common in everyday speech, but grammar tests of this kind expect the formal form. Mine is a possessive pronoun and makes no sense here, and the reflexive myself can only refer back to a subject in the same clause.

Answer: D

The correct sentence is Mathematics is my favourite subject.

Names of subjects ending in -ics, such as mathematics, physics and economics, look plural but are treated as singular, so they take a singular verb. The complement is also singular: my favourite subject.

Option A uses the plural verb are and the plural subjects. Options B and C use Mathematic, which is not a noun in English (it exists only as a rare adjective).

Answer: C

The correct sentence is Now we shall not go there unless we are asked.

In English, a clause of condition introduced by unless or if takes the simple present tense to refer to the future, not shall or will. So the main clause carries the future (we shall not go) and the unless clause stays in the present (unless we are asked).

The first and last options both put shall be asked inside the unless clause, which is the error being tested. The second option also breaks the verb phrase apart, placing not go there after the condition.

Answer: A

The correct sentence is What type of books do you like to read ?

A direct question in English needs inversion: an auxiliary verb before the subject. With a present simple verb like like, the auxiliary is do: 'What type of books do you like to read?'. The original also wrongly adds the before books.

The other three keep the statement word order 'you like' or 'you usually read' or 'you don't like' without the auxiliary do, so they are not correctly formed questions, even though their vocabulary is fine.

Answer: B

The correct order is She sang sweetly in the concert last evening.

After the verb, English adverbials normally follow the order manner, place, time: how (sweetly), where (in the concert), when (last evening).

The other sentences break that order: putting the place before the manner, or the time before the place, sounds unnatural in standard English.

Time expressions can also be moved to the front for emphasis (Last evening she sang sweetly in the concert), but they are not placed between manner and place.

Answer: C

The incorrect sentence is The poverty is a curse.

An abstract noun used in a general sense takes no article. Poverty in general is meant here, so the correct form is 'Poverty is a curse', just as one says 'Honesty is the best policy'.

The other sentences are acceptable. Names of languages take no article ('English is a popular language'), (b) is the paper's way of writing 'It is four o'clock by my watch', and 'ended in a draw' is the normal idiom for a tied match.