Grammar problems exercise 01

1. Andrés Segovia, one of the finest guitarists of the 20th century and, too, an expert on Johann S. Bach.

• sentence fragment
  This sentence does not have a verb and does not express a complete thought. Therefore, it is a sentence fragment.
  

2. The hour is too early, the coffee is too cold.

• run-on sentence
  This sentence has two independent clauses. They should be separated by either a coordinating conjunction or a semicolon.
  

3. The team climbed onto the bus, celebrating their victory with loud singing and shouting.

• pronoun-antecedent agreement
  The antecedent in this sentence is “team,” and because it is a singular noun, it should have a singular pronoun. The “their” is incorrect; it should be “its.”
  

4. I doubt that whomever stole the watch is going to return it.

• misuse of pronoun(s)
  The “whomever” in this sentence should be “whoever” because it is the subject of the subordinate clause.
  

5. Both the music and the moon was beautiful that night as ships quietly slipped in and out of the harbor.

• subject-verb agreement
  This sentence has a compound subject and the coordinating conjunction “and.” The verb in this case should be the plural “was” rather than the singular “is.”
  

6. The president did not get any of his bills through Congress, however, he prevented the opposition from having much success.

• incorrect or lack of comma(s)
  In this sentence, two independent clauses are separated by neither a semicolon nor a coordinating conjunction. The word “however” is not a coordinating conjunction. A semicolon, instead of the comma, should be placed after “Congress.”
  

7. Dr and Mrs Charles Reynolds were the guests honored by the civic clubs last night.

• other punctuation problem
  A period should be placed after the abbreviations “Dr.” and “Mrs.”
  

8. A lawyer can easily handle a problem such as that, but getting an appointment with them is difficult.

• pronoun-antecedent agreement
  The subject of this sentence is “lawyer,” a singular noun; its antecedent should also be singular. In this case, the “them” should be replaced with “one.”
  

9. There were too many books on the shelf; too many papers on his desk; too many magazines on the floor; and too much clutter all over the room.

• other punctuation problem
  The semicolons are not necessary in this sentence. Even though the items in the series are long one, they can be separated by commas. Instead of semicolons, commas should be placed after “shelf” and “desk.” No punctuation is needed after “floor.”
  

10. By striking the clock signaled to us that it was time to leave.

• incorrect or lack of comma(s)
  A comma should be used to separate an introductory phrase from the rest of the sentence. In this case, the comma should be placed after “striking.” Notice how confusing this sentence is when there is no comma.