Difficulty: Medium
Correct Answer: Part (B): "business magnate"
Explanation:
Introduction / Context:
This is a typical English error spotting question found in competitive exams. The sentence is divided into parts marked (A), (B), and (C), and you must decide which part contains a grammatical or usage error. The sentence is "Some of the richest (A) / business magnate (B) / live in Mumbai. (C) / No Error (D)". Such questions test your understanding of subject verb agreement, singular plural usage, and correct phrase formation.
Given Data / Assumptions:
Concept / Approach:
The key concept here is correct singular and plural usage. The phrase "Some of the richest" indicates that we are talking about more than one person, so the noun that follows should also be in the plural form. The expression should be "business magnates", not "business magnate". In addition, the plural verb "live" in part (C) is already consistent with a plural subject, confirming that the subject is plural and the noun must be plural too.
Step-by-Step Solution:
Step 1: Combine the parts mentally: "Some of the richest business magnate live in Mumbai."Step 2: Notice that "Some of the richest" refers to several individuals, not just one.Step 3: Check the noun that follows: "business magnate". A single magnate would require a singular verb such as "lives".Step 4: Observe that the sentence uses the plural verb "live", which correctly matches a plural subject.Step 5: Conclude that the noun should therefore be plural as "business magnates", making the error located in part (B).
Verification / Alternative check:
Correcting the sentence, we get "Some of the richest business magnates live in Mumbai." Now the subject phrase "Some of the richest business magnates" is clearly plural and agrees with the plural verb "live". There is no conflict between subject and verb. If we kept "business magnate" singular, the sentence would read oddly unless we also changed the verb to "lives", which would then conflict with "Some of the". Thus the only logical correction is to pluralise the noun in part (B).
Why Other Options Are Wrong:
Part (A) "Some of the richest" is correct as a phrase introducing a group of very rich people. Part (C) "live in Mumbai." is also correct because "live" is the proper plural verb for a plural subject. Option (D), "No error", is wrong because we have clearly identified a number agreement problem in part (B). Hence only part (B) contains the mistake.
Common Pitfalls:
Many students focus only on the verb and ignore the noun form, or they accept "business magnate" as a fixed phrase without checking number agreement. Another common error is to think that the presence of "some" automatically makes the verb or noun correct, without actually checking singular versus plural consistency. Always ensure that the noun and verb reflect the same number throughout the sentence.
Final Answer:
The correct choice is Part (B): "business magnate", because it should be in the plural form "business magnates" to agree with "Some of the richest" and the plural verb "live".
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