Select the most appropriate option to substitute the underlined segment in the given sentence. If there is no need to substitute it, select 'No substitution'.
The news were broadcasted last evening.
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: C
Explanation
The correct answer is option 3 i.e. was broadcast.
Error concept: Subject-verb agreement and incorrect past participle usage
What is wrong: "The news were broadcasted" is incorrect because "news" is uncountable and takes a singular verb, and "broadcasted" is a wrong past form.
Grammatical concept: "News" is treated as singular, so it requires "was", not "were".The verb "broadcast" is irregular and its past tense is "broadcast", not "broadcasted".
Incorrectness of the concept in context:
"were broadcasted" is wrong both grammatically and in usage—incorrect verb form and subject-verb mismatch.
How to correct: Use "was broadcast" as the correct verb form with the singular subject.
Correct phrase / correction: was broadcast
Final sentence: The news was broadcast last evening.
Hence, the chosen option is correct.