Question

P – His letter for admission to the engineering institute, which was received yesterday, has gone missing.
Q – The bouquet of flowers, which was ordered yesterday, has just arrived.
Which of the above statements is/are grammatically correct?
A) Both are correct
B) Both are wrong
C) Only P is correct
D) Only Q is correct

Answer 1

Hint: The grammatical errors in a sentence can be due to incorrect use of the absence of articles. Articles should be used appropriately as they tell us whether the subject or object being talked about is random or not. Another common mistake seen in English sentences is the disagreement between the verb and the subject. It means that the singular verb has to be used only with a singular noun, and similarly for the plural verbs and nouns.

Complete answer:
Let us analyze the two sentences and check them for grammatical mistakes.
In sentence (P) there are three phrases connected by commas. The second and third phrases ‘which was received yesterday’ and ‘has gone missing’ are grammatically correct. The error lies in the first phrase i.e. ‘His letter for admission to engineering institute’. In this phrase, the object ‘engineering institute’ has to be preceded by a definite article i.e. ‘the’. This is because we are referring to a specific engineering institute, whose admission letter has been mentioned before. Thus, the correct sentence should be; “His letter for admission to the engineering institute, which was received yesterday, has gone missing.”

In sentence (Q) there are two phrases. First is ‘the bouquet of flowers which was ordered yesterday’ and the second ‘has just arrived’. Both these phrases are grammatically correct.

Thus, the correct answer is option (D) Only Q is correct.

Note: Though sentence (Q) is grammatically correct, the sentence can be improved further. We need not use the word ‘of flowers’ in the sentence. A better sentence would be “The bouquet which was ordered yesterday, has just arrived.” Using the word ‘of flower’ is redundant, as the word 'bouquet' already suggests that it is a collection of flowers. Other examples of redundant words are; The sky was blue in colour (since we already know blue is a colour).