The following sentence has been divided into parts. One of them may contain an error.
Select the part that contains the error from the given options. If you don’t find any error, mark ‘No error’ as your answer.
He speaks pleasantly / with her yesterday / evening but not today.
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: A
Explanation
The correct answer is option 1 i.e. He speaks pleasantly.
Error concept: Incorrect preposition and tense usage
What is wrong: The phrase "with her yesterday" is incorrect because the verb "speaks" is in the present tense, but "yesterday" refers to the past. Also, the preposition "with" is not appropriate here for indicating the time reference.
Grammatical concept: When referring to an action that happened in the past, the verb tense should be in the past (e.g., "spoke"), and the preposition "with" is not used to indicate time.
Incorrectness of the concept in context: The sentence mixes present tense ("speaks") with a past time expression ("yesterday"), which is inconsistent.
How to correct: Use the past tense of the verb: "spoke" and remove the preposition "with" to indicate the correct time frame.
Correct phrase/correction: "He spoke pleasantly to her yesterday evening"
Final sentence: He spoke pleasantly to her yesterday evening but not today.