Practice GMAT Sentence Correction Question

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After the Detroit Lions' abysmal 0 win and 16 loss season in 2008, the owner of the team fired the head coach. In the days that followed this decision, one professional sporting analyst said: "the prospects of the Lions becoming a competitive franchise depends on if the team can procure a talented and disciplined coach."

A)	depends on if
B)	depend on whether
C)	depends on whether
D)	depend on if
E)	depend whether

Correct Answer: B

There are two main problems with this sentence.

(1)The subject (prospects, which is plural) does not agree with the verb (depends, which is singular and should be replaced by the plural verb depend).

(2)The idiom depend on whether is correct not depend on if

the verb depends (singular) should be replaced by the verb depend (plural) as a plural subject (prospects) requires a plural verb; the phrase depends on if is not idiomatically correct
the subject prospects (plural) agrees with the verb depend (plural); depend on whether is idiomatically correct
the verb depends (singular) should be replaced by the verb depend (plural) as a plural subject (prospects) requires a plural verb
depend on if is not idiomatically correct
the phrase the prospects ... depend whether the team can procure is awkward and the correct idiom depend on whether should be used

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