In this English error spotting question, identify the part that contains the mistake in: "I visited my (A) grandpa and grandma's house (B) and found their missing. (C) No Error (D)".

Introduction / Context:
This error spotting question examines your ability to distinguish between possessive pronouns and object pronouns in English. The sentence provided is: "I visited my (A) grandpa and grandma's house (B) and found their missing. (C) No Error (D)". You must decide which part contains the grammatical error and understand how to correct it.

Given Data / Assumptions:

• Full sentence: "I visited my grandpa and grandma's house and found their missing."
• Part (A): "I visited my"
• Part (B): "grandpa and grandma's house"
• Part (C): "and found their missing."
• Part (D): "No Error"
• The intended meaning is likely "I visited my grandparents' house and found them missing (they were not there)".

Concept / Approach:
The key issue is the use of "their" versus "them". "Their" is a possessive determiner used before nouns ("their house", "their car"), while "them" is an object pronoun that can function as the direct object of a verb. In the clause "found their missing", "their" is not followed by a noun, and the phrase is incomplete. What the speaker actually finds missing are the grandparents themselves, not something that belongs to them. The correct phrase is "found them missing", where "them" is the object of "found" and "missing" functions as a complement describing their state.

Step-by-Step Solution:
Step 1: Consider the meaning: the speaker went to the house and discovered that the grandparents were not there.Step 2: Examine part (C): "and found their missing." The possessive "their" usually needs a noun after it, which is missing here.Step 3: Replace "their" with "them" to correctly form the object of the verb "found": "and found them missing."Step 4: Check parts (A) and (B). "I visited my grandpa and grandma's house" is grammatically acceptable and clearly identifies the place visited.Step 5: Conclude that the error is confined to part (C), where the wrong pronoun form is used.

Verification / Alternative check:
Rewrite the corrected sentence: "I visited my grandpa and grandma's house and found them missing." This now clearly means that the speaker did not find the grandparents at home. If we tried to keep "their", we would need to say something like "found their dog missing" or "found their belongings missing", where a noun follows "their". Since no such noun is present, the original part (C) is ungrammatical.

Why Other Options Are Wrong:

• Option A (part A "I visited my") is correct and forms the beginning of a standard first person narrative sentence.
• Option B (part B "grandpa and grandma's house") is acceptable; it clearly refers to the grandparents' house, and the possessive 's is correctly attached to the second noun.
• Option D (No Error) cannot be selected because a clear error has been identified in part (C).

Common Pitfalls:
Students can easily confuse "their" and "them" because both refer to the same group of people, but they perform different grammatical roles. A useful check is to ask whether a noun follows the possessive determiner. If there is no noun after "their", and the word stands alone as an object of a verb, then "them" is needed instead. Being careful with these small function words can significantly reduce mistakes in both exams and everyday writing.

Final Answer:
The error is in part C; the sentence should read "and found them missing" instead of "and found their missing".