Error Spotting

ENGLISH

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Error Spotting
Most of you find it difficult to tackle the English Language section. It is comparatively tougher to clear the sec-
tional cut off for English. However, proper guidance and preparation can help you to achieve good marks in
this section as well.

Spotting Errors in English is one of the important topics. Therefore, we are here to give you General Tips for
Spotting Errors in English for various Government & Banking Exams.

Words, phrases and sentences can be called as the roots of any language. An error in their usage leaves an ex-
pression incomprehensible. It would be difficult to understand such sentences and it may also alter the mean-
ing of the sentence. Hence, we must know the roots of the language so that we can understand the written
text and their expression perfectly. One must have a complete knowledge of parts of speech in order to ace
this particular section.

Our sentence is made up of words and each word is a part of speech, so in order to identify error in a sentence
we should have a good understanding of parts of speech. Let’s have a look at the sentence given below, it has
been segregated into different parts of speech.

So, we can see above how with different parts of speech we can make a meaningful sentence. We need to
perfect our grammar skills in order to ace this section, given below are the prerequisite:

 Grammar (parts of speech + tense)

 Comprehension skill

 Good reading skill

 Vocabulary

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Types of error spotting

Traditional Pattern
In this type of error spotting a sentence is divided into four parts in the question itself, you have to find out
which part contains error.

Q. The villagers stayed /(A) fearlessly despite of /(B) rumors of an Adivasi attack /(C) in the area. /(D) No
Error. /(E)

1) A

2) B

3) C

4) D

5) E

A. The correct answer is 'B' i.e. the error lies in part B of the sentence.

Key Points
 The preposition 'despite' means without being affected by.

 It is never followed by 'of'.

 The preposition 'of' must be dropped to make the sentence grammatically correct.

 Hence, the correct sentence is: The villagers stayed fearlessly despite rumors of an Adivasi attack in
the area.

Q. The old priest (A) decided to (B) sacrifice the goat (C) as an offer to God. (D) No Error (E)

1) A

2) B

3) C

4) D

5) E

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A. The correct answer is D- the error lies only in this part.

Key Points
 The word 'offer', present in part D is incorrect. We need to replace 'offer' with 'offering' to make the
sentence grammatically and contextually correct.

 Offer: an amount of money that someone is willing to pay for something

 Offering: a thing offered as a religious sacrifice or token of devotion

 Thus we can see that Offer and Offering are not similar, in spite of them coming from the same root
Q. Man is entirely different (A) / than other animals (B) / in the utter helplessness (C) / of his babyhood.
(D) / No Error (E)

1) (A)

2) (B)

3) (C)

4) (D)

5) (E)
A. The correct answer is option 2.

Key Points
 The given sentence has compared a human being to other animals in their babyhood.

 The word 'different' in part A of the sentence is always followed by the preposition 'from'.

 'Different than' is never correct.

 So, the word 'than' must be replaced with 'from' to make the sentence grammatically correct.

 Therefore, the error lies in part B of the sentence.

 The correct sentence will be: Man is entirely different from other animals in the utter helplessness of
his babyhood.

Double Part Error

In this type of error spotting a sentence is divided into four parts in the question itself, you have to find out
which two parts contain errors.

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Q. After the foundation, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (A)/ saw a
significant augmentation in their peacekeeping duties,(B)/ taking on more challenges like proper
education, promoting cultural acceptance between any two nations while (C) protecting historical sites in
the last year than they had in the previous years. (D)

1) A and B

2) B and D

3) B and C

4) A and D

5) No error
A. The correct answer is Option 2) i.e. B and D

Explanation:
In part B, 'its peacekeeping duties' should be there in place of 'their peacekeeping duties' and In part D 'it
had in the previous' should be there in place of 'they had in the previous.'

'United Nations' is an organization. When the name of a state, country, book, organization, etc acts as a
subject, a singular verb is used, and the possessive adjective 'its' is used with generally non-living things.
The same goes for 'they' it is used for persons and 'it' is used for non-living things.

Let's see some examples:

A car is no good without its wheels.

So the correct sentence is:

'After the foundation, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization saw a
significant augmentation in its peacekeeping duties, taking on more challenges like proper education,
promoting cultural acceptance between nations while protecting historical sites in last year than it had in
the previous years.'

Errorless Combination

In this type of question given sentence has been broken up into four different parts. The error, if any, will be in
one or more parts of the sentence. You need to select the option which contains the part of the sentence
which is free from an error. If all are incorrect mark Option 5 as your answer.

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Q. The draft guidelines issued earlier by the NIH, after President Barack Obama (A) signed an executive order
overturning the eight-year-old ban (B) on federal funding of stem cell lines, had specific requirements of
informed consent (C) by individuals which wished to donate their embryos for research. (D)

1) Only A

2) A and B

3) A, B and C

4) Only D

5) All incorrect

A. The correct answer is Option 3 i.e. A, B, and C are error-free.

According to the rule, the relative pronoun “who” is used for a person, not for things.
For eg: It is I who have built this company without any help.
So the correct sentence is:

The draft guidelines issued earlier by the NIH, after President Barack Obama signed an executive order
overturning the eight-year-old ban on federal funding of stem cell lines, had specific requirements of
informed consent by individuals who wished to donate their embryos for research.

Q. The generals have once again displayed their resolve to continue with its (A) repressive misrule. It’s time
the entire international community (B) took concerted and effective action against the regime (C) so that
the countrys 50 million people were freed from repression and misrule. (D)

1) Only A

2) A and B

3) A, B and C

4) Only D

5) All incorrect
A. The correct answer is Option 2 i.e. B and C are error-free.

Key Points
In part A, The subject is “generals” so the pronoun should be according to a subject that is
“their”. “Their” pronoun is used to show possession and it is used when the subject is plural. “Its” is used

to show possession too but it is used when the subject is singular.

So instead of “its” use “their” in part A.

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In part D, instead of “countrys” use “country’s”. “Country’s” shows the possession of 50 million people.

So the correct sentence is:

The generals have once again displayed their resolve to continue with their repressive misrule. It’s time the
entire international community took concerted and effective action against the regime so that
the country’s 50 million people were freed from repression and misrule.

Find the incorrect sentence

In this type of question given below, three sentences are given and are named as- I, II and III. You have to
determine which sentence/s contains error and mark the appropriate option.

Q. I. Obesity is a medical condition that occurs when a person carries excess weight or body fat that might
affect their health, a doctor will usually suggest that a person has obesity if they have a high body mass
index.

II. Eating too much of fast foods and doing too little exercise can result in weight gain and obesity unless
you will not take care of your health, you will not recover.

III. Robert was asked what he is going to do if he becomes the Prime minister, to which he replied- If he
were the Prime Minister, he would have solved the problems of the country.

1) I and II

2) II Only

3) II and III

4) III Only

5) No error
A. Correct option: 3) II and III , these two sentences are grammatically incorrect.

 Eating too much of fast foods and doing too little exercise can result in weight gain and obesity unless
you will not take care of your health, you will not recover.- this sentence is grammatically incorrect,
'unless' is itself negative in sense so we will omit 'not' and we will use 'unless you take care'.

 When two actions take place one after the other, the second depending on the

 first, it is called a conditional sentence. These words generally come in conditional sentences- if,
provided, as soon as, no sooner, unless, until, when etc.

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The sentence given above is a conditional sentence, when the if-clause is in simple present tense then the
main clause will be in simple future tense.

If + Simple Present, Simple Future

Let see the examples given below:

If I come to Delhi, I will meet you.

I will help him provided he mends his ways.

 Robert was asked what he is going to do if he becomes the Prime minister, to which he replied- If he were
the Prime Minister, he would have solved the problems of the country .- this sentence is grammatically
incorrect, it is a type of conditional

sentence where we talk about something which is purely imaginary so 'would have solved' will be replaced
with 'would solve'.

The main clause uses would, could, or might + the base form of a main verb,then the if-clause uses the past
simple tense

 If Jim lent us his car, we could go to the party.

 We would save £3.50 a day if we didn’t eat any lunch.

 If burglars broke into my house, they wouldn’t find any money. Would you be very angry if I failed my ex-
am?

With Fixed Part

In this type of question a statement has been divided into 5 parts. The one, in the bold, is the fixed part in
which no changes can be made. Among the other parts (A), (B), (C) and (D) find either the error free parts or
the error contained parts. If there is no error, mark (5) as your answer.

Q. Besides contributing to the Globe newspaper, (A) he made appeals to the people by
systematic (B) preaching, and organize centres of action (C) in some of the principal cities in France. (D)

1) B and C

2) B and D

3) C and D

4) Only B

5) All are correct

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A. The correct answer is C and D- the error lies in these parts only.

Key Points
The parts ‘preaching, and organize centres of action,' and 'in some of the principal cities in France' are
grammatically incorrect.

The corrected form of the erroneous parts are:

C: In part C ''preaching, and organize centres of action'' is grammatically incorrect. Here the word
'organize' should be replaced with 'organizing' to rectify the mistake. Thus, the correct part will be
"preaching, and organizing centres of action".

D: In part D '' in some of the principal cities in France'' is grammatically incorrect. In part D, the preposition
'in' is incorrect and will be replaced by 'of'. Thus, the correct part will be " in some of the principal
cities of France".

Therefore, option 3) is the correct answer.

Thus, the correct sentence is: Besides contributing to the Globe newspaper, he made appeals to the
people by systematic preaching and organizing centres of action in some of the principal cities of France.

Q. No sooner had he returned home (A) when he began the work of accumulation, (B) and recorded that, on
the receipt of his first quarter's allowance, (C) a large share were appropriated to his literary wants. (D)
1) B and C

2) B and D

3) C and D

4) Only B

5) All are correct

A. The correct answer is B and D- the error lies in these parts only.

Key Points
The parts ‘when he began the work of accumulation quarter's allowance,' and 'a large share
were appropriated to his literary wants' are grammatically incorrect.

The corrected form of the erroneous parts are:

B: In part B ''when he began the work of accumulation'' is grammatically incorrect. Here the 'when' should
be replaced with 'than' to rectify the mistake Thus, the correct part will be "than he began the work of
accumulation".

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D: In part D ''a large share were appropriated to his literary wants'' is grammatically incorrect. In part D, the
verb were is incorrect and will be replaced by was. Here the verb doesn't agree with the subject as a singular
subject of a sentence or clause requires a singular verb. Thus, the correct part will be "a large
share was appropriated to his literary wants".

Therefore, option 1) is the correct answer.

Thus, the correct sentence is: No sooner had he returned home than he began the work of accumulation,
and recorded that, on the receipt of his first quarter's allowance, a large share was appropriated to his liter-
ary wants.

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