Correcting Phrase, Clause, and Sentence Errors - GMAT Verbal

The use of "just" at the beginning of the sentence is awkward and confusing, making it unclear what exactly the adjective is modifying. The word makes the most sense if it modifies "seventeen," to emphasize the subject's youth during his "first arrest." "He was just seventeen when he first got arrested" is the answer choice that best makes use of the word "just" by placing it directly before "seventeen."

The placement of "only" in the sentence is confusing and odd, as it seems to imply that the subject was merely the driver who finished. The sentence will make the most sense if "only" is used to show that the winner was the one driver to finish. The sentence which best does this is "The race's winner was actually the only driver to complete the full race."

The phrase "overly soggy with too much dressing" describes the salad that the young woman was eating, but is placed within the sentence in a way that it could describe the woman herself. The phrase needs to be set apart from the main sentence structure and more directly linked to the salad. As the only answer choice to make these changes, "the salad, which was overly soggy with too much dressing, during" is the correct answer choice.

The adverb "measly" is awkwardly placed in the middle of this sentence; it is confusing because its placement does not make it clear which noun the adverb is modifying. As a qualification of an amount, it makes the most sense to associate "measly" with the subject, "five dollars." "A measly five dollars was the largest amount the scouts were able to collect" is the only answer choice which places "measly" in the correct location.

The word "happy" in the original sentence is modifying "the dog's food", when we know it should be modifying the dog instead.

In the sentence as it is written, "only" is floating between phrases, and it is not clear what exactly the word is modifying. The sentence is trying to say that the king was the singular person with the ability to exercise the power. So, "only" should be placed next to "person" to make this clear. The only answer choice that places "only" before "person" is "The king was the only person in the country who could exercise such power."

The insertion of "still" between "highly" and "idealistic" is awkward, as "highly" should directly modify "idealistic." The word order of the sentence should be modified, so that "still" is placed before "highly." "The young attorney was still highly idealistic" is therefore the correct answer choice.

The list at the end of the sentence features different verb forms. Any list of such verbs all need to take the same form for a parallel structure; therefore, the correct answer is "for running, jumping, and throwing."

The initial sentence contains an illogical comparison. Her grades cannot be higher than the other students. They can only be higher than the grades of the other students. In this sentence, the pronoun those can stand in for grades.

The adverb "actually" is stuck in a place in the sentence where it is unclear what verb it is supposed to be modifying. An adverb like "actually" modifies verbs, and should be placed directly next to the word it modifies. The only answer choice that places the adverb next to a verb is "The vogue for mixed breed dogs actually helps to improve the health of canines overall."

The relative pronoun “who” makes this sentence into a fragment, because there is no longer a predicate. The best answer simply removes “who.”

When "neither" is used in a sentence, "nor" should follow it, creating the structure "neither X nor Y," where X and Y are items formatted in the same manner. To correct the sentence, we need to change "and definitely not" to "nor." Several answer choices do this: "nor faithful to the original film," "nor were it faithful to the original film," and "nor was it faithful to the original film." "Nor were it faithful to the original film" and "nor was it faithful to the original film" might each look like potentially correct answers, but each introduces a verb that disrupts the parallel structure of "neither X nor Y," in which "nor" should be immediately followed by "faithful to the original film." The correct answer is thus "nor faithful to the original film," making the corrected sentence, "The remake of the film was neither enjoyable nor faithful to the original film."

The correct form for this sentence is "neither . . . nor." In addition, "neither . . .nor" leads to use of the singular form "is"rather than "are_."_

In standard English, when you use the phrase "not only" in a sentence, it should be followed by the phrase "but also." So, the correct answer is "When she went to the zoo, Lyndsey got to see not only tigers, but also polar bears, iguanas, and toucans."

Only answer choice "the heroine, Catherine, must choose between true love and social preeminence" correctly uses "and" with the preposition "between."

The other answer choices, including the original text "the heroine, Catherine, must choose between true love or social preeminence," contain an incorrect idiomatic expression. When we have "between," we typically need the word "and"—rather than "or"—to separate the entities that follow.

When using "neither . . . nor" with singular nouns, the verb of the sentence must be conjugated to agree with a singular noun. Also, you must make sure that you are making "apples to apples" comparisons. Some of the answer choices compare the theory of Adam Smith to Karl Marx (the person), not to Karl Marx's theory, which would be the correct way to make the comparison.

Correlative conjunctions must conserve the parallel structure of the items in the sentence. In this case, we need "fascinated" and "showed" to be conjugated in the same way. The latter cannot be treated as an independent clause (i.e., "it showed") when we use words like "both" because it would not make sense as a stand-alone sentence (i.e., "The analysis both fascinated Amy").

The correlative conjunction phrase that is underlined in the sentence does not feature parallel verb forms, using the past tense "shortened" and the present tense "provides." Any correlative conjunction phrase needs to feature a parallel structure with each verb being in the same tense. The only answer choice which has the correct parallel structure is "not only shortens wait times but also provides better service for customers."

Correlative conjunctions are used in specific pairs: "either" must be paired with "or" and "neither" must be paired with "nor" when you want to use them as correlative conjunctions. When using these correlative conjunctions, it is also important to remember to use parallel phrasing with each element that is being associated through the use of the conjunction.

Neither always goes with nor, and either always goes with or. Neither neither nor either go with "and."