Verbal Ability - Spotting Errors - Discussion

@All.


Answer:
The statement you provided has a grammatical error. Here's the corrected version:

"In spite of several reminders, he has not sent any reply to my letters so far."

In the original statement, "did not so far send any reply to me, letters" is not grammatically correct. It should be "has not sent any reply to my letters so far" to convey the intended meaning.

Note, why use "has not sent " instead of "did not send"?
Answer:

Both "has not sent" and "did not send" are grammatically correct, but the choice between them depends on the context and the intended meaning.

"Has not sent": This is in the present perfect tense. It suggests that the action (not sending a reply) started in the past (since the reminders) and is still relevant or ongoing in the present. It implies that there is a possibility the person might still send a reply in the future.

"Did not send": This is in the simple past tense. It suggests that the action (not sending a reply) is completed and not related to the present. It implies that there is no expectation of receiving a reply in the future based on past behavior.

So, both can be correct depending on the context and the intended meaning you want to convey. If you want to emphasize that the lack of a reply is still a current issue, you would use "has not sent." If you simply want to state a historical fact that he didn't send a reply in the past, you would use "did not send."

So far, when indicating a time interval, indicates time from the start of something up to the present moment, with the understanding that it is expected to continue.

Thus, it is only used with forms of the present and present perfect tenses and their progressive forms, as it would with similar phrases like up to now, till now, as of yet, to date, or thus far. So given answer is right.

If you say that it was calculated to be thirty miles, the calculation you are mentioning is placed by you at some unconnected time in the past.

However, if you say that it has been calculated to be thirty miles, you are including the calculation in a moment that includes both now and then, even though then may be many years in the past.

In spite of several reminders he did not so far send any reply to my letters.
In spite of several reminders he has not so far sent any reply to my letters.

I guess it should be any reply to my letters.

And option B is absolutely not the answer because did takes v1 form. So send is right.

I will tell a clue for that, If there is inspite, despites, etc these type of adverbs then we have to use the present perfect tense.

"didn't so far sent " means he sends the letter now.

"hasn't so far sent " means he has not sent the letter at present.

Here, did is used as a negation for not. It's just for helping negation.

So, the answer is given is absolutely correct.

In spite of several reminders so far, he did not send any reply to my letters.

What about this? Can we frame this way?

In spite of several reminders so far he has not sent any reply to my letters. I think this is the correct sentence.