Sentence Correction

Old English had three genders that resembled those of the Germans and so was probably very difficult for a foreign traveler to learn in a short time.


A. Old English had three genders that resembled those of the Germans
B. Old English had three genders resembling those of the Germans
C. The three genders of Old English resembled a German's

D. Old English's three genders resembled the German's
E. The three genders of Old English that resembled those of the Germans

Is it B?

IMO A
Here the 3 genders of Old english resemble the genders of German.
In the other sentences the comparison is not parallel.
What is the OA

The use of past perfect HAD is not necessary here we can eliminate A and B .

In C the comparison is between 3 genders and a (single gender) of German . Not proper comparison as far as numbers are concerned .

Now the problem starts confused between D and E as both seem grammatically correct .

Meaning wise also both seem equal .

In short making a guess here and going for D .

Whats the OA?

Not really rockey Bhai..be slow while analysing the answer choices!!

IMO A

plz put OA wid ques itself....

gmatmachoman wrote:Old English had three genders that resembled those of the Germans and so was probably very difficult for a foreign traveler to learn in a short time.


A. Old English had three genders that resembled those of the Germans
B. Old English had three genders resembling those of the Germans
C. The three genders of Old English resembled a German's

D. Old English's three genders resembled the German's
E. The three genders of Old English that resembled those of the Germans

It should be A

C,D and E can be easily eliminated by seeing the non underlined part of the sentence...."so was" tells us that the subject of the sentence must be singular.

Now b/w A and B....I do not have perfect explanation for A, but to me A seems better.

IMO A

B : resembling is a adverbial modifier but we need a noun modifier here. (A has the noun modifier 'that')

C, D, E -> easily eliminated.

What is OA

Let me Know if my understanding is wrong with B

IMO A

IMO D cause the comparison is done between genders in old english and in german..the language...while A seems to compare the language to German people.....whats the OA?

imo -- A

DONT SEE ANY OTHER GOOD OPTIONS

gmatmachoman wrote:Old English had three genders that resembled those of the Germans and so was probably very difficult for a foreign traveler to learn in a short time.
A. Old English had three genders that resembled those of the Germans
B. Old English had three genders resembling those of the Germans
C. The three genders of Old English resembled a German's
D. Old English's three genders resembled the German's
E. The three genders of Old English that resembled those of the Germans

Some thoughts:

1. German = German language:

=> The comparison is between the languages.

Germans = Native of Germany.

=> All the choices that have "GERMANS" at the end are out since the comparison is between English language and German Language. A, B, and E are out.

2. Three genders of English are similar to those of German.

=> The use of "German's" option C and D are okay, but those options need "those of" before "German's". So, both the choices C and D are out.

Conclusion: This is not a GMAT question. All the options are wrong.