Question

(A) NO CHANGE (B) Past president's ages range (C) Past president's age range (D) Past presidents' ages range

Short answer

Option (D) is correct: "Past presidents' ages range."

Step-by-step solution

Understand the Sentence

The sentence is comparing the ages of past presidents. The correct choice will depend on the correct use of pluralization and possessive forms.

Analyze Each Option

Option (A) "NO CHANGE" refers to how the sentence is originally, potentially incorrect due to lack of clarity. Option (B) "Past president's ages range" incorrectly uses the singular possessive "president's" instead of plural. Option (C) "Past president's age range" similarly uses the singular possessive. Lastly, Option (D) "Past presidents' ages range" correctly uses the plural possessive "presidents'" to indicate ownership by multiple presidents.

Decide on Correct Pluralization and Possessive

Since the sentence discusses ages belonging to multiple past presidents, the correct plural form must be used. The correct possessive form is needed to indicate that the ages belong to those past presidents.

Select the Correct Choice

The correct choice must reflect that we are talking about the ages belonging to multiple presidents. Therefore, Option (D) "Past presidents' ages range" uses the correct plural possessive form, making it the correct answer.

Key concepts

Possessive Forms

Possessive forms in English indicate ownership or association between two elements. This is an important aspect of grammar and is often tested in exams like the PSAT. When dealing with singular nouns, we typically add an apostrophe followed by the letter 's' (e.g., "the girl's book"). However, things get slightly tricky when dealing with plural nouns, especially those that already end in 's'.
For plural nouns that end in 's', such as 'presidents,' we simply add an apostrophe at the end to show possession. So, the possessive form of 'past presidents' would be 'past presidents’,' meaning something that belongs to multiple presidents. The confusion often arises with singular vs. plural possessive forms because they can change the meaning of a sentence entirely.

• Singular possessive: president's (referring to a single president)
• Plural possessive: presidents' (referring to more than one president)

This distinction is key in ensuring clarity and precision in writing.

Pluralization

Pluralization means making a word refer to more than one person or thing. In English, this typically involves adding an 's' or 'es' to the singular form of the noun (e.g., 'cat' becomes 'cats'). For irregular nouns, the plural can take other forms, like 'child' becoming 'children.'
Knowing when to pluralize is crucial because it affects the meaning of the sentence you're working with. For example, 'president' refers to a single person, whereas 'presidents' indicates multiple people. In the context of the original exercise, understanding pluralization helps us determine that we're dealing with the ages of multiple past presidents.

• Check for clues about numbers or quantities in the sentence.
• Understand the context to decide if singular or plural is appropriate.

Getting pluralization right ensures that your sentences accurately convey the intended information and fit into the correct grammatical structure.

Sentence Correction

Sentence correction involves evaluating and adjusting sentences to make them grammatically correct and clear. This requires understanding several grammatical rules, such as verb usage, word order, agreements in number and tense, and punctuation.
When correcting sentences, considering possessive forms and pluralization is vital, as seen in the original exercise, which involves choosing the correct phrase for past presidents’ ages. The choice "Past presidents' ages range" successfully accounts for both possession and plurality, ensuring accuracy and clarity.

• Identify the intended meaning of the sentence.
• Use grammatical rules to identify and correct errors.
• Make sure the sentence flows naturally and is easy to understand.

Effective sentence correction can greatly improve writing quality, making it a valuable skill for both academic and everyday communication.