Question

Identify the error in the sentence at the underlined point:

The fair-haired lady and dark-haired lady walked into the shop, but only she came out with a bag of purchase.

A) NO CHANGE
B) The fair haired lady
C) The lady
D) they

Answer 1

Hint: In this case, the sentence speaks about two ladies. Therefore, clearly, the second phrase should talk about either of the two ladies or both. But in this sentence, the word ‘she’ is used which is ambiguous and needs to be changed.

Complete answer:
Let us analyze each option one by one:

Option A is ‘NO CHANGE’. The first part of the sentence is correct but the underlined part is ambiguous. And according to the hint given above, there is a need for change in the sentence because of the error in the underlined part therefore, option A is incorrect.

Option B is ‘the fair-headed lady’. This option describes one of the two ladies which are referred to in the sentence. This option also removes the ambiguity from the sentence and makes it error-free. Therefore, option B is possibly the correct answer.

Option C is ‘the lady’. This is again ambiguous as it does not clearly mention which lady. Therefore, option C is also incorrect.

Option D is ‘they’. Since only is used immediately before the underlined word, therefore the option that will replace the word will be singular. Therefore, option D will be incorrect as ‘they’ is a plural pronoun.

So, the correct answer is “Option B”.

Note:
In questions where error needs to be identified, knowledge of grammatical rules plays an important role. They help in identifying what the error is and what can be the possible change that can correct the error.