Identify the misspelt word in the following sentence. Arjun's persistance and…

Concept — English builds abstract nouns with the suffixes -ence and -ance, and the choice between them is not free. When the related adjective or participle ends in -ent, the noun is spelt with -ence; when it ends in -ant, the noun is spelt with -ance. The base form alone fixes the vowel, so a noun written with the other vowel is a spelling error, not an accepted variant.

Application — applying that rule to the words of this sentence:

1. Pick out the words whose spelling the rule can decide, and test each one against its own base form.

2. The quality of carrying on in spite of difficulty belongs to the adjective persistent, which ends in -ent. The rule therefore requires the noun persistence, with -ence.

3. The sentence prints persistance, with -ance. Because the base ends in -ent and not -ant, that ending contradicts the rule, so this is the misspelt word.

Cross-check — the other three words in the sentence hold up:

• diligence comes from the adjective diligent, which ends in -ent, so -ence is the ending the rule requires and the sentence matches it.

• eventually is the adverb of the adjective eventual, formed by adding -ly to the complete adjective, and the sentence matches that standard form.

• breakthrough is the settled one-word noun formed from the verb phrase break through, and the sentence matches that standard form.

The same rule seen across common pairs:

Result — the misspelt word is persistance; its standard spelling is persistence. The corrected sentence reads: Arjun's persistence and diligence in his research eventually led to a breakthrough in the field.