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.
The man / is a / social animal.
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: B
Explanation
The correct answer is option 2 i.e. The man.
Error Concept: Article usage before an adjective + noun phrase.
What is wrong: The phrase “social animal” is a general classification. In English, when referring to such general truths or categories, articles should be used carefully.
Grammatical Concept: The correct expression is “a social animal” when referring to humans as a general category of beings. However, when making a universal statement like “Man is a social animal”, we do not use “The man” or refer to a specific individual.
Incorrectness of the concept in context: Here, “The man” refers to a particular person, which makes it awkward because the sentence seems to aim at a general truth. The correct form is “Man is a social animal.”
How to correct: Remove “The” from the beginning of the sentence.
Corrected phrase: Man is a social animal.
Final sentence: Man is a social animal.
Hence, the chosen option is correct.