There were (A) / no less than fifty persons (B) / present in the room....
The given sentence is grammatically correct. However, option B needs to be corrected. It should be "no fewer than fifty persons" instead of "no less than fifty persons".
Explanation:
- The sentence is in the past tense and uses the verb "were" to indicate that something existed or happened in the past.
- The subject of the sentence is "There", which is used to introduce the existence of something.
- The prepositional phrase "in the room" tells us where the fifty persons were present.
- The use of "no less than" in option B is incorrect because "less" is used to compare quantities that can be measured, while "fewer" is used to compare quantities that can be counted. Since persons can be counted, "no fewer than" should be used instead of "no less than".
- Therefore, the correct option is B, with the correction "no fewer than fifty persons".
There were (A) / no less than fifty persons (B) / present in the room....
Replace ‘less than’ by ‘fewer than’.