In each of the following sentences four words or phrases have been underlined. One underlined part in each sentence is not acceptable in standard English. Pick up that part and mark its number.
There have been little change in the patient’s condition since he was moved to the intensive care unit
Solution
Option A is incorrect in this context because the verb “have” does not agree with the singular noun “change”.
In English, subject-verb agreement is a grammatical rule that states that the verb must agree in number with its subject. In other words, they both must be singular, or they both must be plural. You cannot have a singular subject with a plural verb or vice versa. The correct phrase should be “There has been” to match the singular noun “change”. So, the corrected sentence would be:
“There has been little change in the patient’s condition since he was moved to the intensive care unit.”
