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I am learning English as a second language. I was going through the feedbacks of examiners, who conduct/mark CSS exams (this is a competitive exam conducted to appoint Government officers in Pakistan), as to how a good essay should be written. Also, they are pointing out the mistakes which aspirants (who have previously attempted this exam) have made, and I and came across the following text which sounded to me to be having some sort of disagreement in overall structure.

The first part of the sentence contains “to be” verb and the other part contains past participle (substantiated). I want to learn whether there is a flaw in the given structure or it is just me who’s not understood the English language yet.

The candidates were neither able to build an argument from multiple angles nor substantiated it with facts.

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  • "came across the following text" Please tell us the source of the text. If possible, link to it. Yes there is an error. But I'd like to see the full context before answering. (is it cssecole.com/…)
    – James K
    Commented Aug 8, 2022 at 10:05
  • @JamesK I was going through the feedbacks of examiners, who conduct/mark CSS exams (this is a competitive exam conducted to appoint Government officers in Pakistan), as to how a good essay should be written. Also, they are pointing out the mistakes which aspirants (who have previously attempted this exam) have made. The link you have given contains exactly similar text, however the original link is: fpsc.gov.pk/sites/default/files/…
    – Muhammad Umair
    Commented Aug 8, 2022 at 10:22

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Yes, it is an error. The structure is

were able to (infinitive)

And there are two parallel infinitive phrases: "(to) build an argument" and "(to) substantiate (an argument) with facts"

As these are both infinitives, they should both be in the base form of the verb.

There are other oddities and errors. For example, the use of "Essay" as a proper noun is not standard in the sentence "The outline of Essay was not properly structured."

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