Multiple choice

Directions: This question presents a sentence, all or part of which is underlined. Beneath the sentence you will find five ways of phrasing the underlined part. The first of these repeats the original; the other four are different. If you think the original is best, choose the first answer; otherwise choose one of the others.

The mother could not understand why he always made someones problems his own.

  1. The mother could not understand why he always made someones problems his own.

  2. Mother could not understand why he always made someones problem his own.

  3. The mother could not understand why he always makes someone’s problem his own.

  4. The mother could not understand why he always made someones problems his own problem.

  5. The mother could not understand why he always made someone’s problems his own.
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
E Correct answer
Explanation

Explanation for (1): Here ‘someones’ refers to a possessive pronoun. Therefore, apostrophe should be used.

Explanation for (2): Here ‘someones’ refers to a possessive pronoun. Therefore, apostrophe should be used. This option fails to rectify the error and also incorrectly deletes the article.

Explanation for (3): Here ‘someones’ refers to a possessive pronoun. Therefore, apostrophe should be used. The error is rectified in both (5) and (3). However, (3) changes the tense by using makes which is a present tense, while the rest of the sentence is in the past tense.
Explanation for (4): Here ‘someones’ refers to a possessive pronoun. Therefore, apostrophe should be used. This option fails to rectify the error and also adds the problem of repeated usage of ‘problem’. Justification for (5): Here ‘someones’ refers to a possessive pronoun. Therefore, apostrophe should be used. The error is rectified in both (5) and (3). However, (3) changes the tense by using makes which is a present tense, while the rest of the sentence is in the past tense.

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