Identify the error in the sentence: 'Neither the senior engineer nor the project technicians was able to identify the software glitch.'
Answer and explanation
Correct answer: A. subject-verb agreement
- Step 1: Under the principle of proximity governing correlative subjects ('neither... nor'), the verb must agree with the nearest subject element. Because 'project technicians' is plural and sits adjacent to the verb, the verb must be plural: 'were able'. Answer: subject-verb agreement. Why not the others: "faulty parallel conjunction" occurs when elements joined by correlative conjunctions lack grammatical symmetry; "dangling participial clause" involves an introductory participle phrase that lacks a logical agent; "comma splice error" joins two independent clauses using only a comma without a conjunction.
Practise more Structural Error Spotting and Stylistic Inconsistency.
Free questions with an explanation for every one, and full timed State Certificate of Language Proficiency (KPG) English mock tests.
More Structural Error Spotting and Stylistic Inconsistency questions
- Identify the syntactic error in the following sentence: 'Sailing across the Saronic Gulf, the island of Aegina came into view on the horizon…
- Identify the grammatical error in the following sentence: 'The university policy requires students not only to attend lectures but also comp…
- Identify the syntactic flaw in the sentence: 'The museum curator restored the ancient amphora, the exhibition opened the following morning.'
- Identify the grammatical error in the sentence: 'A detailed inventory of maritime artifacts and navigational equipment were compiled by the…
- Identify the error in the sentence: 'When Maria telephoned Anna from the airport, she said that her flight had been postponed.'
- Identify the logical error in the sentence: 'The fuel efficiency of an electric car is vastly superior to a conventional petrol sedan.'