Direction: Select the segment of the sentence that contains the grammatical…
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Direction: Select the segment of the sentence that contains the grammatical error. If there is no error, mark 'No error' as your answer.
Either my sister (A)/ or my brother (B)/ are coming to the parents' meeting. (C)/ No error (D)/.
- A.
Either my sister
- B.
or my brother
- C.
are coming to the parents' meeting.
- D.
No error
Attempted by 1110 students.
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: C
Solution
Error segment: are coming to the parents' meeting.
Why it's wrong: When subjects are joined by either...or, the verb agrees with the noun closest to the verb. In this sentence the noun nearest the verb is "my brother," which is singular, so the verb must be singular.
Correct sentence: Either my sister or my brother is coming to the parents' meeting.
Rule: With correlative pairs such as either...or, neither...nor, and not only...but also, make the verb agree with the noun closest to it.
Examples
Not only Rahul but his children are coming to visit Shimla.
Neither the lion nor the deer has escaped from the zoo.
Either the deer or the lion has escaped from the zoo.
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