The following sentence has been split into four segments. Identify the segment that contains a grammatical error.
The workers had been repairing / the mall road in / town for / several days now.
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: B
Explanation
The correct answer is option 1 i.e. The workers had been repairing.
Error Concept: Wrong use of past perfect continuous tense with a present time reference - 'now'.
What is wrong:
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The tense “had been repairing” is past perfect continuous, used when referring to an action that started in the past and continued up to another point in the past.
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However, the sentence ends with “now”, which refers to present time, creating a tense mismatch.
Grammatical Rule: If the action is continuing up to the present, the correct tense is present perfect continuous i.e., “have been repairing” (not “had”).
How to correct: Change “had been repairing” to “have been repairing”.
Corrected sentence: The workers have been repairing the mall road in town for several days now.
Hence, the chosen option will be correct.