Directions: In the questions given below, a part of the sentence is underlined. Below are given alternatives to the underlined part which may improve the sentence. Choose the correct alternative. In case, no improvement is needed, option (d) is the answer.Q. Not a word they spoke to the unfortunate wife about it.a)did they speakb)they will speakc)they had spokend)No improvementCorrect answer is option 'A'. Can you explain this answer?

Question

Answer

The given sentence is:
'Not a word they spoke to the unfortunate wife about it.'
To improve the sentence, we need to find an alternative to the underlined part. Let's analyze the options given:
A: did they speak - This alternative changes the verb to the past tense, which is grammatically correct and improves the sentence. It also maintains the correct subject-verb agreement.
B: they will speak - This alternative changes the verb to the future tense. However, the sentence is discussing a past event, so using the future tense is not appropriate.
C: they had spoken - This alternative changes the verb to the past perfect tense. While it is grammatically correct, it changes the meaning of the sentence. The original sentence suggests that they did not speak at all, whereas this alternative implies that they spoke at some point in the past.
D: No improvement - This option suggests that the original sentence is already correct. However, the original sentence lacks subject-verb agreement, as 'they spoke' should be changed to 'they did speak'.
Therefore, the correct alternative is option A: did they speak. It improves the sentence by changing the verb to the past tense and maintaining subject-verb agreement.

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