Improve the underlined part of the sentence. Choose ‘No improvement’ as an answer if the sentence is grammatically correct.
He sharpened his pencil, but the lead broken as soon as he started writing.
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: B
Explanation
The correct answer is option 2 i.e. lead broke.
Error Concept: Incorrect verb form used in past tense narration.
What is wrong: The sentence uses "lead broken", where "broken" is the past participle (V3) form. However, the sentence is in simple past tense, and should use the simple past (V2) form "broke".
Grammatical Concept: In simple past tense, we use the V2 form of the verb (e.g., "broke", not "broken").
Incorrectness of the concept in context: "Broken" would be correct in a perfect tense like "has broken" or in passive voice, but here, the event is being narrated in past tense using active voice.
How to correct: Replace “broken” with the correct past tense verb “broke”.
Correct phrase/ correction: lead broke
Final Sentence: He sharpened his pencil, but the lead broke as soon as he started writing.
Hence, the chosen option will be correct