Question

Choose the option that best corrects the sentence:
The British referendum left the country reeling in shock.
a) The british referendum left the country reeling in shock.
b) the british referendum left the country reeling in shock.
c) the British referendum left the country reeling in shock.
d) NO CHANGE

Answer 1

Hint: The word ‘british’ is a proper noun, and the sentence is an assertive sentence. The word ‘referendum’ is a common noun. There are specific punctuations for all these instances.

Complete answer:
Let’s unpack the given sentence first. The first part of the sentence, i.e. the subject is ‘the british referendum’. The word ‘referendum’ in this is a common noun, which means that it will not have a capital first letter. However, the second word ‘british’ is a proper noun. This word is a proper noun, which means that the first letter of this word should be capitalized. Moreover, the first letter of the first word of any sentence should be capitalized, so in this case, the word ‘the’ will have a capital letter.

Now, we know what kind of punctuation we need to have. Let’s look at the given options:

a) The british referendum left the country reeling in shock. - The word ‘referendum’ does not have a capital letter, which is correct. But, the word ‘british’ also does not have a capital letter. This is grammatically incorrect. This is not the required answer. So, this is an incorrect option.
b) the british referendum left the country reeling in shock. - The word ‘referendum’ does not have a capital letter, which is correct. But, the word ‘british’ also does not have a capital letter. Moreover, the first letter of ‘the’ isn’t capitalized. This is grammatically incorrect. This is not the required answer. So, this is an incorrect option.
c) the British referendum left the country reeling in shock. - The word ‘referendum’ does not have a capital letter, which is correct. The word ‘british’ has a capital letter, which is also correct. However, the first letter of ‘the’ isn’t capitalized. This is grammatically incorrect. This is not the required answer. So, this is an incorrect option.
d) NO CHANGE - The given sentence has all the correct punctuations, the first letter is capitalized, the word ‘british’ has a capital letter, and the word ‘referendum’ has a small letter. It is grammatically correct. This is the required answer. So, this is the correct option.

Note:
Look at the given sentence and read it out loud. This will help you understand what kind of sentence it is. Look for grammatical anomalies, and correct them. Then, choose the option that has the correct punctuation.