Read each sentence to find out whether there is any grammatical or idiomatic error in it. The error, if any, will be in one part of the sentence. The letter of that part is the answer. If there is ‘No error’, the answer is (e). (Ignore errors of punctuation, if any).

A nimiety of food were (A)/ spread over the tables and was (B)/ way more than any one (C)/ group of people could eat (D)/.

The correct answer is Option A.

The error lies in Part A: "A nimiety of food were".

Understanding the word "nimiety":
"Nimiety" is a formal/literary noun meaning an excess or surplus of something. It is a singular noun used as the subject of this sentence. The structure here is:

"A nimiety of food" — Here, the head/main subject is "a nimiety" (singular), not "food". The phrase "of food" is merely a prepositional modifier describing what the excess pertains to.

Subject-Verb Agreement Rule:
When a singular noun is the head of the subject phrase, the verb must also be singular, regardless of any plural nouns that follow in a prepositional phrase.

For example:

✗ "A nimiety of food were spread..." (incorrect — "were" is plural)

✓ "A nimiety of food was spread..." (correct — "was" matches the singular subject "a nimiety")

Why not the other parts?

- Part B: "...and was way more than..." — "was" correctly uses singular agreement, continuing from the same singular subject.
- Part C: "...way more than any one..." — grammatically correct; "any one" is a valid idiomatic construction.
- Part D: "...group of people could eat." — grammatically correct; "group" is a collective singular noun with proper verb usage.

Conclusion:
The grammatical error is in Part A, where the plural verb "were" is incorrectly used with the singular subject "a nimiety". It should be replaced with the singular verb "was".