spot the errorIt were(A) the children that(B) caused a lot of (C ) problems to their parents(D) during long railway journey.
Correct answer: A. were
- A. were
- B. that
- C. a lot of
- D. their parents
Explanation
The correct sentence would be: "It was the children who caused a lot of problems for their parents during the long railway journey."The subject-verb agreement is incorrect, "it" is a singular pronoun and should be paired with the singular verb "was", not "were".- Additionally, the sentence would be improved by using "who" instead of "that" to refer to the children, and "for" instead of "to" to indicate the relationship between the children and their parents.The other options are not incorrect in terms of grammar, but the sentence as a whole is improved by making the changes suggested above.
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About Subject-Verb Agreement
Subject-verb agreement requires the verb to match the true subject in number and person, even when other words intervene. Questions cover collective nouns, compound subjects, indefinite pronouns, either and neither, relative clauses, quantities and inverted sentences, where proximity can falsely suggest the wrong verb.
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