Many people came (a) / from faraway places to prayed (b) / at the temple on the auspicious day. (c) / No error (d)
- (a)Many people came
- (b)from faraway places to prayed
- (c)at the temple on the auspicious day.
- (d)No error
Correct — B, 'from faraway places to prayed'. The 'to' here is the infinitive marker introducing the purpose of the journey, and an infinitive marker is always followed by the base form of the verb, so the segment should read 'to pray'. As it stands, 'to prayed' puts a past tense form after 'to', which English does not allow.
- (a)Many people came — Error-free. 'Many people came' is a correct subject with its past tense verb.
- (c)at the temple on the auspicious day. — Error-free. 'At the temple on the auspicious day' is a correct pair of prepositional phrases.
- (d)No error — There is an error — 'to prayed' places a tensed form after the infinitive marker — so 'No error' is not the answer.
The infinitive marker 'to' is followed by the base form of the verb, as in 'came to pray', never by a tensed form.
The sentence already carries its tense in 'came', so the infinitive stays plain. A quick check is to ask what the 'to' is doing — if it introduces a purpose, the verb after it must be bare.
- An infinitive of purpose answers 'why', as in 'came to pray'.
- When 'to' is a preposition rather than an infinitive marker, it is followed by a noun or an -ing form, as in 'look forward to meeting you'.
- Matching the verb after 'to' to the past tense of the main clause.
- Treating every 'to' in a sentence as a preposition.
Asked as a spotting-errors item — name the segment that contains the error, or mark 'No error'.
No directly related past PYQ was found.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Spot the error. The children ran (a) / to the field to played (b) / before the rain began. (c) / No error (d)
- (a)The children ran
- (b)to the field to played
- (c)before the rain began.
- (d)No error
Answer(b) to the field to played — the infinitive marker takes the base form, giving 'to play'.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Choose the correct option. He stopped at the shop __________ some milk.
- (a)to bought
- (b)to buying
- (c)to buy
- (d)to buys
Answer(c) to buy — an infinitive of purpose takes the base form of the verb.