For one to insure one's home can be costly, and amount to a sum of

Question

For one to insure  one's home can be costly, and amount to a sum of  $1500 per year.

A. one's home can be costly, and amount to a sum of

B. his home can be costly, and amount to

C. one's home can be costly, the amount sometimes even reaching

D. their home can be costly, and amount to

E. one's home can be costly, and amount to

Bunuel · Accepted Answer

OFFICIAL EXPLANATION

For one to insure  one's home can be costly, and amount to a sum of  $1500 per year.

A. one's home can be costly, and amount to a sum of

Not quite.

This answer choice is grammatically correct but stylistically flawed because it is overly wordy. There is another answer choice that expresses the same meaning in fewer words.

B. his home can be costly, and amount to

Incorrect.

This answer choice is grammatically incorrect. The pronoun  his  can refer to human male nouns, but there's no such noun in the sentence.

What helps us identify this question as a Pronoun question as well as identify the mistake is the following Stop Sign:

Every pronoun in the underlined part of the sentence or after it

C. one's home can be costly, the amount sometimes even reaching

Not really.

This answer choice is grammatically correct but stylistically flawed because the phrase  sometimes even reaching  makes it overly wordy. There is another answer choice that expresses the same meaning in fewer words.

D. their home can be costly, and amount to

Not quite.

Although this answer choice is less wordy than the original, it is grammatically incorrect: the pronoun  their  refers to  one  but does not agree with it as  one  is singular and  their  is plural.

E. one's home can be costly, and amount to

This answer choice corrects the stylistic flaw in the original sentence. Using both  amount to  and  a sum  makes the sentence overly wordy. Additionally, it follows the pronoun rule: the pronoun  one  agrees with itself only.

PyjamaScientist · Answer

Option  (E)  . I took 1:30 mins.

Most part of the answer analysis was split choosing between (A) and (E).

Finally chose  (E)  due to its conciseness. I couldn't find any grammatical errors in  (A)  either. So, maybe it's the  "dreaded" redundancy  that is at play here. Personally, my least favorite error determiner.

Option (B)  and  Option (D)  can be eliminated due to "pronoun disagreement". "His" in option (B) should refer to a male antecedent which is nowhere to be found in the sentence prior to its placement. Similarly, there is no logical antecedent for "their" in option (D).  Eliminate.

Option (C)  changes the meaning of the sentence slightly. It now means to say that "sometimes" prices even tough $1500. The original meaning is not this.  Eliminate.

Among  (A)  and  (D) , though both are grammatically correct,  ( D )  triumphs over (B) for it's short and conveys the meaning correctly. (A) on the other hand, with just two extra words is "wordy" and thus goes into the "bin" for "redundancy".

Saachi1 · Answer

Hi  GMATNinja  
Can ",and" be used even when we're not connecting two independent clauses?

GMATNinja · Answer

Sure. It might show up in a list:

Tim's favorite basketball players are Kevin Durant, Trae Young , and  Billy Hoyle.

Or it might set off a modifier:

Tim loves Kevin Durant, arguably the most talented player in the history of the NBA , and  Billy Hoyle, arguably the ninth-most talented backup point guard in his YMCA rec league.

The takeaway: there aren't a whole of unbreakable rules when it comes to comma usage.

I hope that helps!

Saachi1 · Answer

GMATNinja

Yes it does. Thank you!

mukherjeeabhish · Answer

C. one's home can be costly, the amount sometimes even reaching.

Is there any specific error with the option (c) . The OE explains the choice as wordy . How do we decide on that ? I don't see any other error . The sentence structure is clause , a modifier modifying the entire clause . Please provide your insight why do we consider it wordy ?

tatubis · Answer

Hi,

I don't understand why d is correct if there is an unnecessary comma joining an independent clause with a dependant clause.

VerbalBot · Answer

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For one to insure one's home can be costly, and amount to a sum of

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GMAT Sentence Correction (SC - EA only) Questions

For one to insure one's home can be costly, and amount to a sum of

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