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.
Pompeii was a tragedy / that costed the lives / of millions of people.
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: B
Explanation
The correct answer is option 2 i.e. that costed the lives.
- The whole sentence refers to the past tense.
- The event has already happened so, this means the verb will change into the past tense.
- The verb here is ''cost''. So according to the rule, ''cost'' will convert into, ''costed'', but this will NOT happen here.
The word "costed" is not commonly used in the sense of describing the impact or consequences of an event, especially when referring to a historical tragedy. The verb "cost" is often used to convey that something had a particular price or resulted in a particular loss. For example, "The earthquake cost many lives."
Hence, the correct sentence is: Pompeii was a tragedy that cost the lives of millions of people.