The company profits ____________ by 5% last year.
------------------
Q1: What can be put in the blank?
1. grew
2. increased
3. ________
Q2: Is the sentence grammatical?
Either "grew" or "increased" is good. They mean the same thing in this context. The sentence is grammatical.
Q1: The word that can be put in the blank is "increased".
Q2: No, the sentence is not grammatically correct. It should be "The company's profits increased by 5% last year."
Q1: The word that can be put in the blank is "increased".
Q2: No, the sentence is not grammatically correct. The correct sentence should be "The company's profits increased by 5% last year." By adding the possessive "company's" before "profits", it clarifies that the profits belong to the company.