Spot an error in the given sentence. (A)Rajlaxmi as well as/(B)her friends…

Concept: When two subjects are linked by a connecting phrase such as 'as well as', 'along with', 'together with', or 'in addition to' (instead of 'and'), the verb agrees in number with the subject that comes BEFORE the connector — the second subject is treated as an added remark, not a joint subject.

Application: In this sentence, the subject before 'as well as' is 'Rajlaxmi', which is singular. The verb 'were' in part B is plural, so it wrongly agrees with 'her friends' instead of with 'Rajlaxmi'. The verb must be changed to 'was' — 'Rajlaxmi as well as her friends was talking…'. Part B is therefore the error.

Cross-check: Replacing 'were' with 'was' makes the sentence grammatically consistent throughout, confirming part B as the sole error.

Why the other parts are not the error:

• Part A ('Rajlaxmi as well as') only names the subject and the connector — it contains no verb, so it cannot carry an agreement error.

• Part C ('talking about a new boy in her class') is a complete, correctly formed continuing action phrase and does not pair a new subject with a verb.

• Part D ('no error') does not apply because the mismatch described above is present in the sentence.