Grammatically incorrect sentence?

Question

I just appeared for GATE 2013. In its aptitude section, I was totally confused. The question was to identify the grammatically incorrect sentence. The sentences were:

 1. He is of Asian origin.
 2. They belonged to Africa.
 3. She is an European.
 4. They migrated from India to Australia.

According to me (3) and (4) are correct but I am confused whether 1st is incorrect or 2nd. Please clarify if we can use "belonged to" in this regard (belong to a country). Moreover, the first sentence is even more doubtful, as we generally say

He is Asian.

It already means that his origin is Asia.

So please, tell me which is the incorrect sentence and why?

Answer 1

The only sentence in the least bit doubtful is the third. One would normally say and write she is a European. Although European begins with a vowel, it is pronounced yu̇r-ə-ˈpē-ən or yu̇r-ə-ˈpēn, with an initial y- sound, so it would be a rather than an. I'm not sure this counts as a grammatical error, though.

The other sentences are perfectly fine, although for sentence 2, one can only belong to Africa in a poetic sense, as Africa is not an entity capable of legally owing anything.

Answer 2

3 is incorrect. Since "European" starts with a consonant sound, it should be "a European".