Find out whether there is any grammatical error in below sentence. When the national / anthem was being / sung, everyone were / standing in silence.

The correct answer is: D. standing in silence

The sentence is in the

past progressive tense, which is used to describe an action that was happening at a specific time in the past. The subject of the sentence is “everyone,” which is a plural noun. The verb “to be” in the past progressive tense is “were.” However, the verb “to stand” is conjugated as “is” or “are” when the subject is a plural noun. Therefore, the correct verb form in the sentence is “standing.”

The other options are incorrect for the following reasons:

• Option A: The word “When” is a subordinating conjunction that introduces a dependent clause. The dependent clause must be in the past tense to agree with the main clause, which is in the past progressive tense.
• Option B: The word “anthem” is a noun that names a song that is sung to express patriotism or loyalty.
• Option C: The word “sung” is the past participle of the verb “to sing.” It is used in the past progressive tense to form the perfect progressive tense.
• Option E: There is no error in the sentence.