Question

Choose the part of the sentence that contains an error. If the sentence has no error, choose Option D.
a) Neither of the two letters of credit b) were useful c) when he needed it.

a) (a)
b) (b)
c) (c)
d) No error

Answer 1

Hint: Pronouns are words that are used in place of nouns to avoid repetition. ‘Neither’ is used to reject both the first and the second option out of two given options.

Complete answer:

As given in the hint, we use a ‘singular verb’ with the pronoun ‘neither’.Neither acts as a pronoun which is referring to two letters of credit in the given sentence.
Example- Neither side of the road is constructed properly. Here, we can understand that both the left and the right side of the road aren’t constructed properly.
Now, in the given question: It has been stated that both the first letter and the second letter of credit were not useful when he needed it. We can see an error in ‘b) were useful’, as it indicates the usage of a plural verb ‘were’. The correct answer should be: Neither of the two letters of credit was useful when he needed it.
Let’s examine the given options-
Option a- ‘(a)’ does not have any error. Hence, it is an incorrect option.
Option b- ‘(b)’ indicates the inappropriate use of ‘were’, as explained above we use a ‘singular verb’ with the pronoun ‘neither’. Hence, it is the correct option.
Option c- ‘(c)’ does not have any error. Hence, it is an incorrect option.
Hence, the error is in Option ‘b’.

Note: We use a plural verb with the pronoun ‘neither’, if a prepositional phrase with a plural form is placed between ‘neither’ and the ‘verb’.