TCS Digital Appropriate Usage Quiz 1

Answer: In the sentence given, the clause “whoever is chosen as the new chief? is followed by “it is?, which is incorrect. The person chosen as the new chief cannot be referred to as “it?.

Answer option (a) is also incorrect. “Whoever? refers to one person, and that person cannot be referred to in plural subsequently, as “they?.

Option (b) uses the word ‘whomever’ instead of ‘whoever’. But the right word in this context is ‘whoever’.

‘Whoever’ is a subject pronoun like 'he', 'she' and 'they' whereas ‘whomever’ is an object pronoun like 'him', 'her' and 'them'. When the whoever/whomever clause is the subject of the verb that follows the clause, the correct word to use is the one that agrees with the verb. Here, the verb is 'is likely'. 'He is likely' makes sense, while 'Him is likely' does not. So, the right word here is ‘whoever’, not ‘whomever’.

Answer: Adjective ‘unique’ does not have a comparative or superlative degree. So in the given sentence, it should be ‘ the gown was unique’

Answer: “Their” is incorrect because it is a plural third-person possessive pronoun, but the use of “either (A)…or” indicates a singular form. It should be “her.” “Will always volunteer” (B) is a singular verb phrase and is correct. “Time” (D) is correct regardless of whether it is modified by a singular (“her”) or plural (“their”) possessive pronoun, e.g. “They both volunteered their valuable time.”

Answer: No Error

The elements in this sentences are in proper grammatical form. This is a conditional sentence that has the 'had clause' and the 'would' clause.

Answer: No Error

Answer: While ‘beside’ means ‘next to’, ‘besides’ means ‘apart from’. The correct idiomatic usage is ‘beside the point’.

We also have to note the subject-verb agreement here. ‘Whether or not the rumors are true’ has to be followed by ‘is’, not ‘are’. because it is a noun clause. You can replace it with ‘this’: This is beside the point.

Answer: "long and short" is Idiom generally used in business communication. So it is incorrect to use "long or short" here.

Answer: Since the comparison is between two candidates, the comparative degree ‘better’ should be used instead of ‘best’.

Answer: The correct form for the past perfect tense of the irregular verb “to go” is “had gone,” not “had went.” “Went” is only used as the past tense, without the auxiliary “had.” The prepositional phrase (B) is correct. The two parts of the dependent clause (C and D) “by the time I got there” are correct.

Answer: No Error

Here, the phrase 'curry favour' is generally used to refer to people who use insincere flattery to gain personal advantage.

Here it it talking about gaining favour from corrupt but influential people