Question

Read the sentence below and find out which part contains an error. If there is no error, the answer is "No error".

Not less than (a) fifty (b) passengers were (c) killed in the bus accident. (d)

• A. Not less than
• B. fifty
• C. passengers were
• D. killed in the bus accident.

Hint:

Check whether "passengers" is a countable noun, and recall which word, "less" or "fewer", goes with countable nouns.

Answer 1

The Correct Option is A

This sentence gives a number of passengers killed in a bus accident, and we must check if the words used with that number are grammatically correct.

1. Not less than: "Passengers" is a countable noun, and countable nouns need "fewer" for comparisons of quantity, not "less". "Less" is used for uncountable amounts, like water or money, so "not less than fifty passengers" is grammatically wrong.
2. fifty: This is simply the number of passengers and does not carry any grammar error on its own.
3. passengers were: The plural noun "passengers" is correctly matched with the plural verb "were", so this part is fine.
4. killed in the bus accident.: This closes the sentence correctly and needs no correction.

The error lies in part (a), "Not less than", because "less" should be "fewer" when talking about a countable noun like passengers.

Let's summarize:

• Use "fewer" with countable nouns you can count one by one, like passengers, people or books.
• Use "less" with uncountable nouns, like water, time or money.

So the correct option is (a), "Not less than".