Question

What is the mistake in this sentence? "Learning to fly a plane and swimming were two skills Lucy really wanted to learn."

Answer 1

The sentence lacked parallel structure due to the mismatch in grammatical form between 'learning to fly a plane' and 'swimming.' It was corrected by adding 'to learn' after 'swimming.'

Step-by-step explanation:

The mistake in the sentence "Learning to fly a plane and swimming were two skills Lucy really wanted to learn." involves a lack of parallel structure. The sentence should maintain the same grammatical form to provide clarity and balance. The corrected version could be:

"Learning to fly a plane and learning to swim were two skills Lucy really wanted to learn."

The inclusion of "to learn" after "swimming" aligns it grammatically with "learning to fly a plane," thus fixing the error in parallelism.

Answer 2

Answer and Explanation:

There is the same error repeated in two places in this sentence. This is because the sentence needs conjunctions before the verb "to fly" and before the word "lucy". Conjunctions are words that allow connections between the clauses of a sentence, allowing them to be read with fluidity and cohesion. Without these conjunctions, sentences are incorrect and incoherent.

The sentence written with the conjunctions correctly would be:

"Learning how to fly a plane and swimming were two skills that Lucy really wanted to learn."