In the question below, four sentences have been given. Out of four sentences, one sentence is error-free. Find out which of the following sentence is error-free. If all the given sentences have errors, then choose option ‘None is correct’ as the answer choice.
She insisted to take the blame even though the mishap was clearly not her fault.
The committee members, many of whom has served over a decade, voiced their dissent vehemently.
Had they adhered strictly to the guidelines, the irregularities would not have occurred.
The number of applicants, regardless of their credentials, do not guarantee selection.
None is correct
The correct answer is: Had they adhered strictly to the guidelines, the irregularities would not have occurred.
Let us analyze each sentence step-by-step to identify the errors and find the grammatically correct, error-free sentence:
1. "She insisted to take the blame even though the mishap was clearly not her fault."
Error: The verb "insisted" is incorrectly followed by the infinitive "to take". In English, the verb "insist" takes the preposition "on" followed by a gerund (-ing form).
Correction: "She insisted on taking the blame..."
2. "The committee members, many of whom has served over a decade, voiced their dissent vehemently."
Error: There is a subject-verb agreement error within the relative clause. The pronoun "whom" refers back to the plural noun "members". Therefore, the plural auxiliary verb "have" must be used instead of the singular "has".
Correction: "The committee members, many of whom have served over a decade..."
3. "Had they adhered strictly to the guidelines, the irregularities would not have occurred."
Analysis: This sentence uses a conditional structure (inverted third conditional) to talk about a hypothetical past situation. "Had they adhered..." is equivalent to "If they had adhered...". The main clause correctly uses the past conditional structure "would not have occurred". This sentence is grammatically correct and error-free.
4. "The number of applicants, regardless of their credentials, do not guarantee selection."
Error: There is a subject-verb agreement error. The subject of the sentence is "The number", which is singular and takes a singular verb. The phrase "regardless of their credentials" is a parenthetical expression and does not affect the agreement. Therefore, the verb should be "does not" instead of "do not".
Correction: "The number of applicants, regardless of their credentials, does not guarantee selection."
Therefore, the only error-free sentence is: "Had they adhered strictly to the guidelines, the irregularities would not have occurred."
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