Errors with Verbs: Subject-Verb Agreement

The following sentences contain subject-verb agreement errors.

Correct the problems by changing the verbs. Some sentences

contain more than one error.

1. A recent report on Cuban land crabs shows that they can run faster than

horses.

2. The team from Snooker Hollow High School is considering switching from basketball to
basketweaving because passing athletics are now

required for graduation.

3. Neither of the students knew that both mystery writer Agatha Christie and

inventor Thomas Edison were dyslexic.

4. Each of the twins has read about Joseph Priestley’s contribution to the

understanding of oxygen, but neither was aware that he also invented the

pencil eraser.

5. Clarity in speech and writing is essential in the business world

today.

6. Historical data suggests that the world’s first money, in the form of coins,

was made in Lydia, a country that is now part of Turkey.

7. Bananas, rich in vitamins and low in fat, is rated the most popular fruit in

America.

8. There are many children in this country who appreciate a big plate of hot

grits, but none of the Hall kids like this Southern dish.

9. Either the Labrador Retriever or the Yorkshire Terrier holds the honor of

being the most popular breed of dogs in the United States, say the Ameri-

can Kennel Club.

10. Many people consider Johnny Appleseed a mythical figure, but now two

Local historians, authors of a well-known book on the subject, argue that

he was a real person named John Chapman.

Errors with Verbs: Form, Tense Shift, and Double Negatives

A. The following sentences contain incorrect verb forms, tense

shifts, and double negatives. Correct any problems you see,

and rewrite any sentences whose clarity or conciseness would be improved by

using active rather than passive verbs.

1. He could hardly wait to hear country star Sue Flay sing her version of

“I’ve Been Flushed from the Bathroom of Your Heart.”

2. “If you were in Wyoming and could hear no wind blowing, what would

people call you?” asked Jethro. “Dead,” replies his buddy Herman.

3. It was believed by Aztec ruler Montezuma that chocolate had magical

powers and could act as an aphrodisiac.

4. Tammy’s favorite band is Opie Gone Bad, so she always buys their

concert tickets, even though she can hardly afford to.

5. Suspicions of arson are being raised by the Fire Department following the burning of the new Chip
and Dale Furniture Factory.

B. Revise any incorrect verbs in the following sentences.

1. I saw what she was hiding behind her back.

2. He came around here yesterday asking questions, but we’re used to that.

3. Having forgotten the combination to the safe, the burglar quietly snuck out

the back door.

4. Austin doesn’t like to be awakened until noon.

5. The kids did good work all day.

Errors with Nouns and Pronouns

A. In the following sentences, select the proper nouns and

pronouns.

1. Please buy a copy of the book The Celery Stalks at Midnight for my sister and

(I).

2. Between you and (me), some people define a Freudian slip as saying one

thing but meaning your mother.

3. (Who) is the singer of the country song “You Can’t Make a Heel

Toe the Mark”?

4. Aunt Beulah makes better cookies than ( me).

5. (She and I) are going to the movies to see Attack of the Killer

Crabgrass.
6. I’m giving my accordion to (, whomever) is carrying a grudge

against our new neighbors, the (Smith’s,).

7. The Botox surprise party was given by Paige Turner, Justin Case, and (

me).

8. She is the kind of person for (whom) housework means sweeping the

room with a glance.

9. (Her and him, She and he) are twins (who, whom) are always finding

(themselves,) in financial trouble.

10. The judge of the ugly feet contest announced his self the winner

B. The following sentences contain a variety of errors with nouns and pronouns.

Some sentences contain more than one error; skip any correct sentences you

may find.

1. Clarence and I have an uncle who is so mean he writes the name of the

murderer on the first page of mystery novels that are passed around the

family.

2. Of whom did Oscar Wilde once say, “He hasn’t a single redeeming vice”?

3. It was a surprise to both Mary and me to learn that Switzerland didn’t give

women the right to vote until 1971.

4. Each of the young women in the Family Life class decided not to marry

after they read that couples today have 2.3 children.

5. Jim Bob explained to Frankie that the best way for him to avoid his recur-

ring nosebleeds were to stay out of his cousin’s marital arguments.

6. Those of us who’d had the flu agreed that one can always get a doctor to

return your call quicker if you get in the shower, but let’s keep this tip confidential between you and
me.

7. The stranger gave the free movie tickets to Louise and me after he saw people standing in line to
leave the theater.

8. The personnel director told each of the employees, most of whom opposed

him, to signify their “no” vote by saying, “I resign.”

9. A person knows he’s in trouble when their salary undergoes a modified reduction adjustment of 50
percent.

10. One of the first movies to gross over one million dollars was Tarzan of
the Apes (1932), starring Johnny Weissmuller, a former Olympic star who

became an actor. This didn’t happen often

Errors with Adverbs and Adjectives

Choose the correct adverbs and adjectives in the following

sentences

1. After the optometrist pulled her eye tooth, Hortense didn’t behave very

(good) in the waiting room.

2. Which is the (worst) food, liver or buttermilk?

3. I didn’t do (well) on my nature project because my bonsai sequoia

tree grew (bad) in its tiny container.

4. Don’t forget to dress (warmly) for the Arctic freestyle race.

5. Of the twins, Teensie is (taller) than Egore.

6. Watching Joe Bob eat candied fruit flies made Jolene feel (really) ill,

and his table manners did not make her feel (, better).

7. The Roman toothpick holder was (unique).

8. That was the (funniest) flea circus I have ever seen.

9. Does the instructional guide Bobbing for Doughnuts still sell (well)?

10. The Fighting Mosquitoes were trained (good), but they just didn’t

take practices (seriously).

Errors in Modifying Phrases

Correct the errors in dangling and misplaced modifiers by

rearranging or rewriting the following sentences.

Run-On Errors

1. The food on Hard Luck Airlines persuaded us to take a ship back to our starting point.

2. The fire department can now be notified of any fires that may be connected to your phone by
calling this new number.

3. The award-winning ice sculptor celebrated the $10,000 purchase of her new outdoor studio in
Aspen, where she resides with her infant daughter.

4. The actor displayed fan letters that were scattered across his desk.

5. Running too fast during a game of "Kick the Can," my face collided with the flagpole.

6. Eloise purchased a computer from her neighbor that had memory issues.

7. Jean threw the skirt from her closet because it was ill-fitting, wrinkled, and oversized.
8. The suitcase needed to be reopened because the underwear was not packed.

9. Blanche intends to incorporate her research on Big Foot mating habits into a course she will teach
at Slippery Rock College in the spring.

10. Kate's friends realized she would need to go to Special Coffee after she spent the entire night in
the library.

11. DeeDee felt that the tomatoes weren't ripe when she squeezed the can.

12. Parents don't have to worry about solid food from birth to twelve months.

13. Considering how old the bicycles were, he didn't think they would survive the mountains.

14. I've read in books from the public library that several contemporary sailors, like Thor Heyerdahl,
have crossed the ocean in primitive vessels.

15. Carefully proofread; hanging modifiers are easy to identify and fix.

Fragment Sentence Errors

A. Using the “It is true that” test, identify the fragments and

the complete sentences in the following samples.

1. The first drive-in theaters opened in New Jersey in 1933. Which was in the

middle of the Great Depression when money was scarce.

2. By 1958 there were over 4,000 drive-ins in the United States. As recorded

by the United Drive-in Theatre Owners Association.

3. The number of drive-ins has fallen drastically. Perhaps because escalating

land prices make property too valuable for use in this way. Or the fact that

they are open only during the summer months in some areas.

4. There are only 430 drive-ins left in the country. Including the American

territories.

5. Other outdoor summer activities are also endangered. For instance, the

miniature golf industry, down from 50,000 courses in the 1930s to fewer

than 15,000 today.

B. Rewrite the following sentences so that there are no fragments.

1. The first credit card concept was introduced in 1887. As stated by "Credit Cards" author Lawrence
M. Ausbel in the McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Economics.

2. Originally a fictitious idea from one of Edward Bellamy's futurist novels.

Characters could charge the card against their future earnings.

3. During the turn of the 20th century, a few American retailers offered "shoppers' plates" made of
metal or paper. Even though retailers were the only ones to use them to identify their credit
customers.

4. The first credit card was successfully issued by a New York bank in 1947. Even though buyers could
only use their purchases to be charged in a two-block radius in Brooklyn.

5. Soon after, cards for travel and entertainment emerged, enabling users to charge goods and
services nationwide. Take the 1958 American Express card and the 1959 Carte Blanche, for instance.

Correct the following run-on sentences. Try to use several dif-

ferent methods of correcting the errors.

1. American workers take thirteen days off on average per year; in Italy, workers take forty-two.

2. Annie Edson Taylor, a schoolteacher, was the first person to cross Niagara Falls in a wooden barrel
in 1901. To date, only one woman has been known to survive this perilous adventure.

3. As the choir performed "Break Forth into Joy," the minister gave his parting sermon.

4. A built-in unit that cost an astounding $2,595 was the first microwave oven to be sold in 1959.

5. During the Middle Ages, coffee was regarded as food. Travelers who discovered it growing in
Ethiopia combined it with animal fat.

A. Correct the comma splices that appear in the following sen-

tences. Use more than one method of correcting the errors.

1. Most people know that the likeness of Susan B. Anthony appeared on an

American dollar coin in the 1990s.Although fewer people know exactly who she was

or why she is so important.

2. For most of her life Anthony fought for women to obtain the right to vote,

she was an organizer of the world’s first women’s rights convention in

1848.

3. Anthony often risked her safety and her freedom for her beliefs, she was

arrested in 1872 for the crime of voting in an election.

4. She also worked to secure laws to protect working women, at that time all

of a woman’s wages automatically belonged to her husband.

5. Unfortunately, Anthony did not live to see the 1920 passage of the Nine-

teenth Amendment giving women the right to vote, she died in 1906.
B. Correct any run-on sentences or comma splice errors you see. Skip any correct

sentences you find.

1. My mother is very politically conservative, she’s written in King George III

for president in the last two elections.

2. Mary Lou decided not to eat the alphabet soup. The letters spelled out

“botulism.”

3. A dried gourd containing seeds probably functioned as the first baby

rattle.Ancient Egyptian wall paintings show babies with such gourds clutched

in their fingers.

4. Opportunists who came to the South after the Civil War were often called

“carpetbaggers,” they carried their belongings in cheaply produced travel

bags made of Belgian carpet.

5. A friend of mine offers a good definition of nasty theater critics on opening night. According to
him, they’re the people who can’t wait to stone the first cast.

6. When English scientist James Smithson died in 1829, he willed his entire

fortune to the United States to establish a foundation for knowledge.

That’s how the Smithsonian Institution was started.

7. The word “jack-o’-lantern” may have come from the legend of Irish Jack, a

mean old man in life, he was condemned after death to wander the earth

carrying a hollow turnip with a lump of burning coal inside.

8. People forget how large the blue whale is ,it has a heart as large as a Volkswagen Beetle and can
hold an elephant on its tongue.

9. According to a study by the Fish and Wildlife Service, Americans’ favorite

animals are dogs, horses, swans, robins, and butterflies; their least favorite

are cockroaches, mosquitos, rats, wasps, and rattlesnakes.

10. The famous Eiffel Tower, built for the 1889 Paris Exposition, has inspired

many crazy stunts, for example, in 1891 Silvain Dornon climbed the 363

steps on stilts.

Errors of False Predication and Mixed Structure

Rewrite the following sentences so that each one is clear and

coherent.
1. After missing the Raiders game last week due to a broken finger, the team's quarterback, A. M.
Hall, is anticipated to play in tonight's contest.
2. The groom spent his entire childhood attending Centerville High School, where he graduated.
3. After hitting the tree, I suffered additional injuries to my body when my universal joint gave out on
the way to the doctor's office.
4. After spending the entire day ice fishing, he brought home a twenty-pound block of ice,
demonstrating his intelligence.
5. The town provides affordable daycare services For new residents who have children and are
unaware of the town's low-cost daycare services.
6. The nineteenth-century cynic Ambrose Bierce defined marriage as the union of "a master, a
mistress, and two slaves, making in all, two."
7. The plumber arriving three hours late is another instance in which I lose my temper.
8. I owe a lot of my current success to my drama instructor.
9. Some argue that sound travels slower than light, such as when advice given to teenagers does not
reach them until they are forty.
10. Some stray cows discovered him in a ditch after hearing his cries for assistance.