Subject Verb Agreement

Identifying Sentence Errors

The following sentence contains either a single error or no error at all. If the sentence contains an error, select the one underlined part that must be changed to make the sentence correct. If the sentence contains no error, select choice E. 

Read the sentence to yourself, listening for errors.  The best way to identify errors is to check each underlined portion against the Big 8 Grammar Rules.  Identify and mark the error that you find in the sentence, and then quickly check the other choices.

Audio recordings, and the equipment (A) used to make and play them, (B) comes in (C) many forms, (D) including records, CDs, and analog and digital tape recorders. (E) No error

(A) contains more than one word, so you need to think about the role each word plays in the sentence.  “Used” is correct because it follows “equipment,” which can be used.  It is also idiomatically correct to use a “to” and a verb after “used.”  (B) underlines  a verb separated from the subject.  Look back to find the simple subject of the sentence and you will find that it is plural.   You cannot say “audio recordings comes” because the verb does not match the subject in number.  Instead you must say “audio recordings come.”  Mark this error, but quickly check the rest of the sentence. (C) includes the word “many,” so you should immediately think of the difference between “many” and “much.”  “Much” is used with things that you cannot count while “many” is used for thing that you can count.  You can count the different forms available (6 records or 23 CDs), so the word “many” is correct. (D) uses a word that ends in –ing, so you should check to make sure that the –ing is correct. No other form of the word “including” makes sense in this sentence.  (E) is wrong because you already identified one error.

The correct answer is (B).

On sat.collegeboard.org, 62% of the responses were correct.

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