Choose the grammatically INCORRECT sentence: A. They gave us the money back less the service charges of Three Hundred rupees. B. This country's expenditure is not less than that of Bangladesh. C. The committee initially asked for a funding of Fifty Lakh rupees, but later settled for a lesser sum. D. This country's expenditure on education is very less.

GATE 2012 · General Aptitude · Grammatical Error · medium

Answer: D. 'This country's expenditure on education is very less' is grammatically incorrect — 'very less' is non-standard; correct usage is 'very little'.

1. Check option A: Option A: 'gave us the money back less the service charges' — 'less' here functions as a preposition meaning 'minus/deducting'. This is standard English. CORRECT.
2. Check option B: Option B: 'not less than that of Bangladesh' — a standard comparative structure using 'less than'. CORRECT.
3. Check option C: Option C: 'settled for a lesser sum' — 'lesser' is a formal comparative adjective correctly modifying 'sum'. CORRECT.
4. Check option D: Option D: 'expenditure on education is very less' — 'very less' is non-standard English. 'Less' is itself a comparative form and should not be intensified by 'very'. The correct phrase is 'very little' or 'much less'. This sentence is grammatically INCORRECT.