Which error is present in the sentence 'The committee have decided to postpone its meeting'?

• A. Subject-verb agreement
• B. Punctuation
• C. Tense
• D. Pronoun reference

Answer: (A)

The main idea being tested is subject-verb agreement—the verb must match the number of the subject. Here, the subject is a collective noun, "The committee," which is treated as a single unit in standard usage. When a singular subject is used, the verb should be singular as well, so the correct form is "has decided" rather than "have decided." The rest of the sentence fits with this choice: "its meeting" uses the singular possessive pronoun that correctly refers back to the committee.

So the natural, correct version is: The committee has decided to postpone its meeting. If you were thinking of the committee as individuals, you could say: The committee members have decided to postpone their meeting. But with the given subject, the mismatch is in the verb form, which is why subject-verb agreement is the issue.