Identify the word that should be removed from the following sentences to make them grammatically correct.
1. They went out despite of the rain.
‘Of’ should be removed from the sentence. The correct preposition is despite.
2. Merlin, who is my youngest sister, she lives in Qatar.
‘She’ should be removed from the sentence. A clause cannot have more than one subject.
3. No matter what that I do, nothing seems to work.
‘That’ should be removed from the sentence.
4. He is at the work and won’t be home before evening.
‘The’ should be removed from the sentence. There is no article in the expression ‘at work’.
5. It is getting dark. Let us go to home.
Home is used without to as an adverb referring to direction.
6. I have received the parcel last week.
We cannot use the present perfect tense with past time expressions.
7. You had better to put the meat in the oven.
After had better we use the infinitive without to.
8. You have to tell to me exactly how it happened.
We do not use a preposition between tell and its object. The sentence should read: You have to tell me exactly how it happened.
9. If something does not work, I usually give to it a kick.
There is no preposition between give and an indirect object.
10. I don’t know that how we are going to get over the river.
‘That’ should be removed from the sentence. The sentence should read: I don’t know how we are going to get over the river.
11. Have you ever tried to get a toothpaste back into the tube?
The article ‘a’ should be removed.
12. We have got our roof blown off in the storm last week.
We cannot use the present perfect tense with past time expressions.
Answers
1. They went out despite the rain.
2. Merlin, who is my youngest sister, lives in Qatar.
3. No matter what I do, nothing seems to work.
4. He is at work and won’t be home before evening.
5. It is getting dark. Let us go home.
6. I received the parcel last week.
7. You had better put the meat in the oven.
8. You have to tell me exactly how it happened.
9. If something does not work, I usually give it a kick.
10. I don’t know how we are going to get over the river.
11. Have you ever tried to get toothpaste back into the tube?
12. We got our roof blown off in the storm last week.
