Parts of the following sentence are given as options. Identify the part that contains a grammatical error. If there is no error, select 'No error'.
This was no strange sight / to the boy by that time, / for he had neither gun or spear.
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: B
Explanation
The correct answer is option 2 i.e. for he had neither gun or spear.
Error concept: Use of correlative conjunctions with "neither" and "or."
What is wrong: The phrase uses "neither...or," which is incorrect. The correct correlative conjunction pair is "neither...nor."
Grammatical concept: Correlative conjunctions must be used correctly to maintain parallel structure and proper meaning. The pair "neither...nor" is used to negate two alternatives.
How to correct: Replace "or" with "nor."
Correct phrase: for he had neither gun nor spear.
Final sentence: This was no strange sight to the boy by that time, for he had neither gun nor spear.
Hence, the chosen option contains the error and should be corrected as above.