Select the most appropriate option that can substitute the underlined segment in the given sentence. This book giving us much information about our freedom fighters who lost their lives while serving our motherland.

Correct — C. The sentence as printed has no finite verb. giving is a participle, so "This book giving us much information..." is a fragment, and the singular subject This book needs the present-tense finite form gives.

The second trigger is the noun. Information is uncountable in English, so it is quantified by much, not by many.

Option (c), gives us much information, repairs both faults at once — the finite singular verb and the correct quantifier.

Why the others are wrong

• (a)
  give us much information — The quantifier is right, but give is the plural form. The subject is This book, singular, so the simple present takes the -s ending.
• (b)
  give us many information — Wrong twice over — plural give after a singular subject, and many in front of information, which has no plural and takes much.
• (d)
  gives us many information — The verb is now correct, but many cannot quantify an uncountable noun. You count books, not informations, so the quantifier has to be much.

Two rules meet in this one underlined segment.

First, a clause needs a finite verb. An -ing form on its own is a participle and cannot carry tense, which is why "This book giving us..." never becomes a sentence until giving is replaced by gives, or an auxiliary such as is is supplied.

Second, countability decides the quantifier. Uncountable nouns take much, little and a great deal of. Countable plurals take many, few and a number of.

Key facts

• Information is uncountable in standard English, so it has no plural form and takes much rather than many.
• Advice, furniture, luggage and equipment behave the same way — no plural -s, and much rather than many.
• An -ing form is a participle, not a finite verb, and needs an auxiliary to work as the main verb of a clause.
• In the simple present, a singular subject takes the -s form: this book gives, these books give.

Common traps

• Repairing only the quantifier and leaving the sentence without a finite verb
• Treating much and many as a matter of style rather than a countability rule
• Assuming the long relative clause at the end must contain the error because it is the longest part of the sentence

No directly related past PYQ was found.