Question

The following sentence has not been edited. There is one error in the line. Pick out the option with the incorrect word and its correction from the ones given below.
The other parents were equally friendly.
A) Incorrect = others, correct = other
B) Incorrect = were, correct = are
C) Incorrect = parents, correct = parent
D) Incorrect = others, correct = other’s

Answer 1

Hint: To check errors in a sentence we must start by looking at punctuations, gender-specific words, etc. The plural nouns should be used with plural verbs in a correct sentence. The same goes for singular nouns. If it is not the case, then the sentence is in subject-verb disagreement and hence grammatically incorrect.

Complete answer:
In the given sentence, all the words seem to be in the correct places. The word ‘others’ is the only word that does not fit in the sentence, as it is an adjective and should not be in plural.

Now let us look at the given options:
Option A) Incorrect = others, correct = other – The word ‘other’ is always singular when it is used as an adjective. It can be used in the plural form when it is used as a pronoun. In the given sentence it is used as an adjective to describe the parents. Therefore, it cannot be used in the plural form. Thus, this option is correct.
Option B) Incorrect = were, correct = are – The word ‘were’ is used with plural nouns and pronouns. In this case, it has been used correctly as ‘parents’ is a plural noun. Thus, this option is incorrect.
Option C) Incorrect = parents, correct = parent – The word ‘parent’ can be used as both singular and plural. In the given sentence, it is followed by the verb ‘were’ which is a plural verb. Therefore, according to the subject-verb agreement, ‘parent’ should also be in the plural form. Thus, this option is incorrect.
Option D) Incorrect = others, correct = other’s – The word ‘others’ as we have seen in the previous option is incorrect with respect to this sentence. Its correct use will be its singular form, ‘other’. The word given in this option for correction is a possessive adjective. Therefore, this option is incorrect.

Thus, the correct answer is Option (A) incorrect = others, correct = other.

Note: The word ‘other’ can be used as an adjective, a pronoun and even a verb. For e.g.
I’ll buy some other t-shirt. (adjective).
The others were rude to him. (pronoun)