My friend's daughter-in-laws have come.
- (a)Error in the first underlined part
- (b)Error in the second underlined part
- (c)Error in the third underlined part
- (d)No error
Answer
B
Why
Correct — B, Error in the second underlined part. In a compound noun the principal noun takes the plural, so the plural of 'daughter-in-law' is 'daughters-in-law', not 'daughter-in-laws'.
Why the others are wrong
- (a)Error in the first underlined part — The possessive 'My friend's' is correctly formed.
- (c)Error in the third underlined part — 'have come' is a correct plural verb form.
- (d)No error — The sentence does contain an error — the plural should be 'daughters-in-law'.
Concept
A plural-formation item — in hyphenated compound nouns the main noun is pluralised (daughters-in-law, passers-by, commanders-in-chief).
Related PYQs
No directly related past PYQ was found.
Practice
- practice — not a real PYQ
What is the correct plural of 'mother-in-law'?
- (a)mother-in-laws
- (b)mothers-in-law
- (c)mother-in-law's
- (d)mothers-in-laws
Answer(b) mothers-in-law — the principal noun 'mother' takes the plural.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Choose the correct sentence.
- (a)Three passer-bys helped him.
- (b)Three passers-by helped him.
- (c)Three passers-bys helped him.
- (d)Three passer-by helped him.
Answer(b) Three passers-by helped him — the main noun 'passer' is pluralised.