Grammar problems exercise 02 answers

1. Joe appreciated him recognizing the achievements of the club to which he belonged.

• incorrect possessive
  As a general rule, a possessive pronoun should be used before a gerund. In this sentence, the pronoun should be “his” rather than “him.” The gerund is “recognizing.”
  Joe appreciated his recognizing the achievements of the club to which he belonged.
  

2. The radio station changed their format from top 40 to oldies last year.

• pronoun-antecedent agreement
  The mistake in this sentence is one of the most common made in both written and spoken English. The pronoun “their” should be “its” because the pronoun's antecedent, “station” is singular.
  

3. Either the money or the fame are certain to bring him sadness in the end.

• subject-verb agreement
  A compound subject joined by the construction “either . . . or” usually takes a singular verb. That's because the subject is one or the other, not both. The verb in this sentence should be “is.”
  

4. George C. Scott, a fine actor was an Academy Award for his performance in Patton.

• incorrect or lack of comma(s)
  The phrase “a fine actor” is an appositive phrase; that is, it renames the noun “George C. Scott.” Appositive phrases should be set off from the rest of the sentence by commas. A comm should be placed after the word “actor.”
  

5. Whom did he say was coming to the reception?

• misuse of pronoun(s)
  The “whom” in this sentence should be “who” because it is used as the subject of the clause. You would say “who was coming to the reception,” not “whom was coming to the reception.”
  

6. He did not find any trace of the body, did he.

• other punctuation problem
  The sentence should end with a question mark because of the interrogatory phrase at the end.
  

7. The game, we played, is the same one that has been played for many centuries.

• incorrect or lack of comma(s)
  The commas in this sentence are unnecessary because the clause “we played” is a restrictive clause.
  

8. The executive comes from Nashville, Tenn. but now lives in New York City.

• incorrect or lack of comma(s)
  When a city and state are mentioned in the middle of a sentence, a comma should separate the state from the rest of the sentence. The period after “Tenn.” is also necessary because it is an abbreviation.
  The executive comes from Nashville, Tenn., but now lives in New York City.
  

9. I could hardly speak, I was so out of breath.

• run-on sentence
  Two independent clauses are connected by a comma rather than a comma and a coordinating conjunction or a semicolon. This makes it a run-on sentence.
  

10. The injured player who won the National League batting title last year.

• sentence fragment
  This sentence does not express a complete thought.