The following sentence has been split into four segments. Identify the segment that contains a grammatical error.
(A) The dog barked loudly at the stranger, / (B) standing protective / (C) in front of its owner / (D) and alerting everyone in the vicinity.
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: D
Explanation
The correct answer is option 4 i.e. B
Error Concept: Incorrect use of adjective instead of adverb.
What is wrong: The phrase "standing protective" is incorrect because "protective" is an adjective, not an adverb.
Grammatical Concept: After verbs like “standing,” we use an adverb to describe the manner of the action. The correct adverb form of "protective" is "protectively."
Incorrectness of the concept in context: The adjective “protective” does not describe how the dog was standing.
Correction: Replace "protective" with "protectively."
Correct phrase: standing protectively
Final sentence: The dog barked loudly at the stranger, standing protectively in front of its owner and alerting everyone in the vicinity.
Hence, the chosen option is correct.