An editor's pass
Two rules, each applied twice in opposite directions, inside one paragraph.
Passage
A paragraph submitted to a local history journal. Each sentence contains one error.
(1) The mill's owners, who had bought the site in 1836, ___ the Fairbairn brothers.
(2) Their intention, according to the deeds, ___ to build a warehouse.
(3) The warehouse was never built; the mill they put up instead ___
(4) Its foundations are still visible from the ___ marked on the parish map.
Answers in order, explanations withheld, and a report on where the chain broke.
- 36.1Subject-verb agreementStandard
Which choice belongs in sentence 1?
- Awere
- Bwas
- Chas been
- Dis
Show the answer and reasoningHide the reasoning
were
The subject is "The mill's owners", which is plural. The relative clause between the subject and the verb ends in a singular-sounding year, and that is what makes "was" tempting.
- 36.2Subject-verb agreementStandard
Builds on: Question 1, and deliberately in the opposite direction. The same rule that required a plural verb there requires a singular one here, which is why answering both by ear rather than by subject gets one of them wrong.
Which choice belongs in sentence 2?
- Awas
- Bwere
- Chave been
- Dare
Show the answer and reasoningHide the reasoning
was
The subject is "Their intention", singular, and "according to the deeds" is an interruption rather than part of it. A single intention takes a singular verb even when what was intended involves several people.
- 36.3Sentence boundariesStandard
Which choice belongs in sentence 3?
- Astood until 1962.
- Bstanding until 1962.
- Chaving stood until 1962.
- Dto stand until 1962.
Show the answer and reasoningHide the reasoning
stood until 1962.
What follows a semicolon has to be a complete sentence, and a complete sentence needs a finite verb. A participle or an infinitive leaves the clause without one, however complete it sounds read aloud.
- 36.4Sentence boundariesChallenge
Builds on: Question 3 is the mirror of this one: there a clause had too little to stand alone, and here two clauses that each stand alone are held together by too little. Both are decided by asking whether each side is a sentence.
Which choice belongs in sentence 4?
- Atowpath, and they are
- Btowpath, they are
- Ctowpath; and they are
- Dtowpath being
Show the answer and reasoningHide the reasoning
towpath, and they are
Two complete sentences are joined by a comma plus a coordinating conjunction. A comma alone splices them, a semicolon does the joining that "and" is already doing, and the participle turns a claim the sentence is making into a modifier.