The following sentence has been split into four segments. Identify the segment that contains a grammatical error.

Both Reeta and Ronika / has won / the dance competition / this year.

The correct answer is "has won".

Key Points

• The segment that contains a grammatical error is "has won".
• The subject of the sentence is "Both Reeta and Ronika", which is a plural subject.
• Thus, the verb should also be plural. The correct verb form would be "have won".
  • Example: John and Mary have won the game.
    • In this sentence, "John and Mary" is the plural subject, and "have won" is the correct verb form to agree with the subject.
  • Example: He and she has gone to the store.
    • In this sentence, "He and she" is the subject, and "has gone" is the incorrect verb form because the subject is plural. The correct form would be "have gone".
• Hence, the correct sentence would be "Both Reeta and Ronika have won the dance competition this year" as "have won" correctly agrees with the plural subject "Both Reeta and Ronika".

Additional Information

• The verb and its subject must match up in number according to English grammar. Thus, if the subject is singular, the verb must also be singular, and if the subject is plural, the verb must also be plural.
• Example: Having a singular verb and a singular subject:
  • The dog barks at the strange man.
    • The singular verb that agrees with the subject in this sentence is "barks," and the singular subject in this sentence is "dog."
• Example: Plural subjects and plural verbs:
  • The dogs bark at the strange man.
    • "Dogs" is the plural subject in this sentence, and "bark" is the verb that agrees with the subject in the plural.