Question

In the following sentence, four words or phrases have been underlined. Choose the word or phrase which is not appropriate in standard written English. If the sentence has no error, mark (5).

Of (1) the three, women, wine and song, the former (2) brought about (3) his (4) ruin. NO ERROR (5)

Answer 1

[2] "Former" must be changed to "first". “Former” refers to the first of TWO persons or things. Since we are dealing with three things and not two, its use in the given sentence is incorrect.