Parts of the following sentence have been given as options. Select the option that contains an error.
The politician was accused of accepting bribes and lied about it to the public.
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: C
Explanation
The correct answer is option 3 i.e. and lied about it.
Error Concept: This sentence contains an error in parallelism (parallel structure).
What is wrong:
The two verbs "was accused of accepting" and "lied" are not parallel in construction.
The sentence implies that the politician did both things:
-
Accepted bribes
-
Lied about it
But the structure makes it look like he was accused of accepting and then lied, which distorts the parallel actions.
Grammatical Concept:
Parallelism requires that when two or more actions are listed together, they should be in the same grammatical form.
Incorrectness of the Concept in Context:
The verbs "was accused of accepting" and "lied" are not parallel. The first is in passive voice with a gerund, and the second is active past tense.
How to Correct:
Both actions should be in the same grammatical form:
Either both as gerunds or both as base verbs in parallel structure.
Final Sentence:
The politician was accused of accepting bribes and of lying about it to the public.