ANSWER KEY-Error Correction

1. Please ask your father to thaw the meatballs while I finish cooking the pasta.
2. Take this water to your grandfather, he is very thirsty.
3. The teacher was impressed with Mark and me.
4. Regardless of what you think, I am going to drive this car.
5. Corporate houses do not wait to think about how their actions will affect
6. I bought you this chocolate because you’re a very good boy.
7. I did not know that this is Phillips’ new car!
8. Raj had not expected to lose so much money at the horse races.
9. The principal of Thames school is very strict, all the students are scared of him.
10. Can I borrow your pencil to me just for one day?

OR

Can you lend me your pencil just for one day?

11. I have been thinking of visiting them but their house is too far away.
12. The dog might be sick; it keeps scratching its own coat of fur.
13. Our burger is way cheesier and meatier than the burger you will find next
door. (The comparison has to be completed)
14. Kolkata has a lot of famous sweets g. Rosogolla.
15. Priya has a bad habit of peeking into other people’s copies.
16. Yedi is a man who loves his work more than anything else in the world.
17. Before leaving I want you to know that I am going to miss you a lot.
18. This is a lamp that/which can keep add a touch of brightness to your room.
19. Don’t you think that my design is better looking than yours?
20. I can assure you that he is a hardworking fellow and shall be an asset for your firm.
21. You should reinforce the ends to keep them from fraying.
22. The tanginess of the wine complements the meatiness of the dish perfectly.
23. I am finding it difficult to choose between my pair of red trousers and my pair of
green ones.
24. I hired a housekeeper whom I met at my mother’s new house.
25. I have missed them so much! I cannot tell you how excited I am to see my parents
after so long.
26. Ravi’s speech had an impact and impressed the client.
27. If I were President I would have made chocolate a part of school meals.
28. The juggler and dancer is going to arrive soon.
29. Everyone must brew his or her own coffee.
30. When I was fifteen years old, I received a bicycle as a gift from my mother.
31. She is married to a plumber who is five years older than her.
32. I saw him yesterday at the grocery store.
33. I would like to talk to you so please tell me if you have some free time.
34. I visited my sick aunt two days back.
35. Remember that I have a four month old son at home.
 36. This afternoon I am going to go out for jogging.
37. We travelled to New York ten years
38. She is good person, every neighbour likes
39. Although it was sunny, I carried an umbrella just in case.
40. I enjoyed the theatre production which was put up at the school.
41. I want to visit the United States of America one day.
42. My father has recently joined a new job/office.
43. I did not meet anybody in this house today.
44. My train departs at 7 am from the new station which has been constructed across
the road.
45. She is a successful person and an inspiration for her peers.
46. People realize only later that life is hard and not a bed of roses.
47. She told me that she was hungry before eating all the cookies.
48. You have to admit that it is colder now than it was ten days back.
49. They have managed to make a good life
50. We usually cut the cake on her birthday.

Answers – Identifying Sentence Errors

1. D: The error is “have become,” which should be “has become.” The plural form of the auxiliary verb
“have” is incorrect because the subject of the independent clause is “working,” which is singular and
thus takes a singular verb—i.e. “working has…” The other underlined sections are correct.

2. D: “Dad” is a name or proper noun and should be capitalized. “By” is a correct preposition to use
here. “Its” is the correct use of the third-person singular possessive impersonal pronoun. The
punctuation at the end of the quotation is correct.

3. B: “Includes” is incorrect because it is the singular form of the verb, but the subject, “symptoms,” is
plural. The verb should be “include.” The subordinating conjunction “that” introducing the dependent
clause, and its plural verb “warrant,” (A) are both correct. “…vomiting, and” (C) is punctuated correctly
as the last in a series of three or more words. The singular noun “loss” (D) is correct.

4. C: “Their” is incorrect because it is a plural third-person possessive pronoun, but the use of “either
(A)…or” indicates a singular form. It should be “her.” “Will always volunteer” (B) is a singular verb phrase
and is correct. “Time” (D) is correct regardless of whether it is modified by a singular (“her”) or plural
(“their”) possessive pronoun, e.g. “They both volunteered their valuable time.”

5. B: The correct noun for this meaning is spelled “effect.” “Affect” when it is a noun means mood or
emotional state, e.g. “The patient presented with a depressed affect.” When it is a verb, the meaning of
“affect” is related to the meaning of the noun “effect;” e.g. “The experience had a harmful effect on her,
but it did not affect her brother the same way.” “…her mother” (A) is correctly not capitalized as it is a
noun, not a name/proper noun (e.g. “Hello, Mother.”) The other underlined parts are correct.

6. D: This is incorrectly spelled as two words. In this sentence, it should be “altogether,” a one-word
adverb modifying the adjective “specious” and meaning “entirely” or “completely.” “All together” would
be used for a different meaning, e.g. “The family members were all together at the reunion.” The
President (A), Speaker of the House (B), and Republicans’ (C) are all correctly capitalized as they are
titles. The adjective congressional (C) refers to Congress (a proper name and thus capitalized), but as an
adjective it is lower-case unless part of a proper name.

7. E: There is no error in this sentence. Titles and proper names (A) are capitalized. Academic subjects or
departments are lower-case (e.g. department of computer science) unless they are adjectives
(Computer Science teacher) (B) or proper nouns (English, French, etc.) Bill Gates (C) is a proper noun, i.e.
a name, and is always capitalized. “…the president” (D) is correctly lower-case both because it is used
after a name, and because it is a used as a description rather than a title here.

8. C: The verb is misspelled here. For the correct meaning, it should be “accept,” i.e. to consent or agree
to our plan. “Except” means other than, besides, but, etc. Used as a verb as in this sentence, it would
mean to make an exception of our plan, which is incorrect as it contradicts the rest of the sentence
(without an argument). “They” (A) and “will” (B) are used correctly as subject pronoun and auxiliary
verb. “Without” (D) is correctly used as a preposition.

9. A: The correct form for the past perfect tense of the irregular verb “to go” is “had gone,” not “had
went.” “Went” is only used as the past tense, without the auxiliary “had.” The prepositional phrase (B) is
correct. The two parts of the dependent clause (C and D) “by the time I got there” are correct.

10. A: The error is “quick,” which is an adjective; here it should be the adverb “quickly” instead,
describing manner (how) to modify the verb “Work.” “…as carefully” (D) is an example of the correct
usage. The other underlined sections are correct.

1. Every pale tomato slice, wilted pickle, and brown lettuce leaf _costs_ an extra 25 cents at
Bernie's Burger Emporium.
2. Not only the Smiths but also Tonya _has_ agreed to try one of the world-famous chocolate-
broccoli muffins.
3. The Smiths, along with Tonya, _hope__ to avoid indigestion after eating these weird muffins.
4. On the sidewalk __are__ many little lizards sunning themselves on the hot concrete.
5. Even though Antonio has many friends who love their Chevrolets and Buicks, he has always
believed that General Motors _makes__ lemons.
6. My dog Floyd, together with Buster the cat, _likes_ to play with money; the cat swats crumpled
bills onto the floor where the dog shreds them to pieces.
7. Latoya isn't going to Daytona Beach for spring break because fourteen dollars _is_ all that she
has in her vacation fund.
8. Even though Johnson and Johnson _warns__ consumers not to insert Q-tips into their ears,
people refuse to read directions and frequently puncture their eardrums.
9. All of my important keys _are_ now stuck in the drain pipe of my bathroom sink. Buster, my
kitten, doesn't realize how much his playfulness inconveniences me.
10. Grandpa claims that Martian measles _causes_ green and purple spots to erupt all over a
person's body.
11. Digging holes in the sofa cushions _is_ Peanut, Elizabeth's new puppy.
12. Even though the jury _wants_ to believe that the defendant did not feed Elvis to the Loch Ness
Monster, much of the evidence points to her guilt.
13. Neither the students nor their instructor _is__ happy with the long cafeteria line for squid
eyeball stew.
14. Neither of Freud's parents _has_ much intelligence when it comes to choosing spouses. Freud's
father has married five times, and Mom just presented him with stepfather number three.
15. Each of these women _wishes_ that she had read the care instructions before washing the
delicate and expensive dresses.
16. Here _are_ the mail and newspapers that I picked up for you while you were on vacation.
17. Mr. Lowry, our English teacher, believes that students who major in economics or physics _ruin_
their imaginations.
18. _Does_ no one except Marge and Beatrice have the subject-verb agreement exercises that Ms.
Koopman assigned for today?
19. Here _stand_ Tonya and Robert, the two students who scored 100 percent on the subject-verb
agreement quiz.
20. General Foods, the maker of Cheerios, _has_ developed a new cereal with chocolate puffs and
broccoli-flavored marshmallows.
21. Each man, woman, and child _needs_ to write General Foods a letter supporting the company's
decision to produce a chocolate-broccoli breakfast cereal.
22. There _are_ more calories in a bowl of chocolate-broccoli breakfast cereal than you might think.
23. Not only the vitamin C from the broccoli but also the delicious taste of the chocolate _makes_
this breakfast cereal a real crowd pleaser.
24. Who needs a pet if you live in Florida? There already _are_ lizards that sneak in between the
window screens and cockroaches that take up residence in every bathroom and kitchen.
25. Susan is one of those students who _kiss_ up to the instructor every chance that they get.