Identify the segment in the sentence which contains a grammatical error.

Every soldier and every officer was in their place.

Question

Question

This question was previously asked in

SSC CGL Tier 2 English Previous Paper 2 (Held On: 3 Feb 2022)

Answer 1

The erroneous part is their place i.e. this part has an error.

Key Points

Replace 'their' with 'his'.
When two singular nouns joined by and are preceded by each or every, the pronoun must be singular in number.
- Every soldier and every sailor was in his place.
Hence, the correct answer is option 3.

The correct sentence: Every soldier and every officer was in his place.

Additional Information

A personal pronoun referring back to a collective noun must be in the singular number if the collective noun is viewed as a whole.
- The jury has given its verdict.
- The fleet will reach its destination in a week.
If the focus is on the individual members of the group, the pronoun should be in the plural number.
- The jury were divided in their opinion.