Four Marked Errors in a School Magazine Paragraph
A Grade 10 student, Ko Ko, wrote this paragraph for the school magazine. His teacher marked four errors but did not explain them. The marks are not shown, so Ko Ko must find the errors himself. He asks you to help him correct the paragraph and explain the rules so he can avoid the same mistakes in the matriculation examination. The paragraph is about attendance and a school football match.
Paragraph: 'The number of students who was absent yesterday were ten. Each of them have informed the class teacher. Neither the monitor nor the teacher were surprised, because the news about the inter-house football match are more important. A honest mistake by the scorer had caused confusion, and the match was delayed for an hour.'
1. Correct the first two sentences and explain each correction.
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Sentence 1: 'The number of students who was absent yesterday were ten.' Corrections: 'who were absent' because the relative pronoun refers to plural 'students'; 'was ten' because the subject is 'The number', singular. So: 'The number of students who were absent yesterday was ten.' Reasoning: 'number' is the head noun; 'of students' is a prepositional phrase and does not control the verb. Sentence 2: 'Each of them have informed the class teacher.' 'Each' is singular, so 'has informed'. Corrected: 'Each of them has informed the class teacher.'
2. Correct 'Neither the monitor nor the teacher were surprised' and explain the agreement rule.
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With 'neither ... nor', the verb agrees with the nearer subject. Here the nearer subject is 'the teacher' (singular), so 'was surprised'. Corrected: 'Neither the monitor nor the teacher was surprised.' If the order were reversed - 'Neither the teacher nor the monitor' - the nearer subject would be 'monitor' and the verb would still be singular. But with a plural nearer subject, for example 'Neither the teacher nor the students', the verb would be 'were'. The rule is proximity, not the total number of people.
3. Correct 'the news about the inter-house football match are more important' and 'A honest mistake'.
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'News' is an uncountable singular noun, so 'is more important'. Corrected: 'the news about the inter-house football match is more important.' 'A honest mistake' is wrong because 'honest' begins with a vowel sound (the h is silent), so the article is 'an'. Corrected: 'An honest mistake'. The sound rule matters, not the letter: 'a university' versus 'an hour'.