The number of arrests of drunken drivers is increasing every year is-correct Note: Also while checking for subject/verb agreement, note that the subjectdoesn’t always appear before the verbE.g.Dominating the New York skyline is the Empire State Building andthe Chrysler Building- incorrectDominating the New York skyline
are
the Empire State Buildingand the Chrysler Building- -correct
4. Idiomatic Errors
(Refer to Sec. II.6 Common Idioms)
E.g.Many political insiders now believe that the dissension in congress over health issues decreases the likelihood for significance action being takenthis year to combat the rising costs of health care.Error: ‘Likelihood for’ is an unidiomatic expression ‘likelihood that’ is correct.E.g. There is little doubt that large corporations are indebted for the smallcompanies that broke new ground in lased optics.Error:
Indebted for
is incorrect.
Indebted to
is the correct usage.Each idiom has its own usage. There is no particular rule as such.
5. Parallel Construction
There are two kinds of sentences that test the parallel construction. The first one isa sentence that contains a list, or has a series of actions set off from one another by commas.E.g. …to ….to ….to …The second kind is a sentence that’s divided into parts. All the parts must have parallel types of verbiageE.g. ate _____, slept ____, drank ____ Bad construction might look like:…to ____, _____ …ate _____, sleep _____, drank ____.I like to swim, to run, and to dance. – CorrectI like to swim, run, and dance. – CorrectI like to swim, run, and to dance.– IncorrectI like to swim, to run, and dance.– Incorrect
6. Apples and Oranges
When the sentence compares two actions/items, things, can they really becompared?E.g.The people in my office are smarter than other officesError: The sentence compares
people
to
other offices
, literally. This iswrong. Two dissimilar things cannot be compared.2
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