Find the Error 33
(Extract adapted from a headline in a well-known
national magazine for teachers)
What kind of mistake do you see? (Choose one:)
- apostrophes
- articles
- doesn't make sense
- punctuation
- singular / plural
- spelling
Answer: singular / plural
The word 'What's …' is a short form (or contraction) of the verb 'to be'. The
full form is 'What is …' 'Is' is a singular form of this verb ('he is, she is, it is'),
while 'are' is a plural form ('we are', 'they are'). For this reason, you can't
follow 'What's …' with a plural noun such as 'chances'. It is necessary to
change the verb to the plural form 'What're …' (which is a contraction of
'What are …') so that the corrected sentence reads: 'What're the chances of
a manned mission to Mars?'
Click here to download this page as a free .PDF worksheet
|
