The following sentence has been divided into four segments. Identify the segment that contains a grammatical error. The lions became violently / when the visitors / started throwing / stones at them.
- (a)The lions became violently
- (b)when the visitors
- (c)started throwing
- (d)stones at them.
Answer
Why
Correct — A. Became is a linking verb, and a linking verb takes an adjective as its complement, never an adverb.
The segment reads 'The lions became violently', which leaves the -ly form describing nothing at all. Corrected, it is 'The lions became violent' — option (a).
Quick test: swap in a form of be. 'The lions were violent' is English; 'the lions were violently' is not. That confirms the verb is linking, so the adjective is required.
Why the others are wrong
- (b)when the visitors — When the visitors is a conjunction plus its subject, and the clause takes its verb in the next segment. Nothing in it is out of place.
- (c)started throwing — Started throwing is correct: start takes either an infinitive or an -ing form, so 'started throwing' and 'started to throw' are both standard English.
- (d)stones at them. — Stones at them is an object plus a prepositional phrase, and throw takes at for a target. Throwing stones at someone is the ordinary collocation.
Concept
A linking verb joins a subject to a word that describes the subject, so the describing word is an adjective. The family includes be, become, seem, appear, look, feel, sound, taste, smell, grow, turn and remain.
An action verb takes an adverb instead, because the adverb describes the action: the lions moved violently, the visitors shouted loudly.
So the same -ly word is right or wrong depending on the verb in front of it, and reading the verb first is the whole method here.
Several verbs run both ways. 'She looked angry' describes her; 'she looked angrily at him' describes the looking. Deciding which reading the sentence wants is the real skill.
Key facts
- Linking verbs take an adjective complement: became violent, seems easy, feels rough.
- Action verbs take an adverb: threw violently, ran quickly.
- Substituting a form of be is a quick test for whether a verb is linking.
Study next
Common traps
- Accepting violently because -ly words sound more formal and more correct.
- Reading became as an action verb because lions sound like they are doing something.
- Hunting for a tense fault in the visitors clause when the fault is a word class in the opening segment.
SSC splits one sentence into four segments and puts a single word class, tense or preposition out of place, so you are looking for one fault, not for the weakest-sounding phrase.
The adverb form carries the error at 17 Sep 2024, 16:00, English Q.11, where 'they ran fastly' needs 'fast'. A missing auxiliary does the same work at 24 Sep 2024, 16:00, English Q.20, where 'Jerry driving' needs 'Jerry was driving'.
Related PYQs
No directly related past PYQ was found.