Find the part of the sentence that contains an error:
The new guidelines regarding safety protocols (1)/ issued last month by the department (2)/ has not yet been implemented at the local units (3)/ despite repeated notices. (4)
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: C
Explanation
Correct Answer:-
has not yet been implemented at the local units (3)
Explanation:-
The error lies in part (3) due to a subject-verb agreement violation. The true grammatical subject of the sentence is "The new guidelines," which is a plural noun phrase. The prepositional phrase "regarding safety protocols" and the past participle clause "issued last month by the department" act as modifiers and do not alter the number of the subject.
Because the subject "guidelines" is plural, it requires a plural helping verb. The singular helping verb "has" must be replaced with the plural helping verb "have" to make the sentence grammatically correct: "...have not yet been implemented..."
The new guidelines regarding safety protocols (1) is correct because it establishes the plural subject.
issued last month by the department (2) is correct as it properly functions as a reduced relative clause modifying the guidelines.
despite repeated notices (4) is correct because "despite" is a preposition correctly followed by the noun phrase "repeated notices" to show contrast.
Key Points
Core Definition Subject-verb agreement requires a verb to match its true subject in grammatical number, regardless of any intervening words, phrases, or clauses that separate them.
Grammatical Role Identifying and isolating non-essential modifiers to correctly align the plural subject with its corresponding plural helping verb within a compound predicate.