Error Spotting
About 7 min · English Language · English
Time worked out from the lesson's 538 words at 150 words a minute, plus a minute for each question.
The format is straightforward: a sentence is divided into parts (typically labelled A, B, C, D), and you must identify which part contains a grammatical error. One option is always "No Error."
Key ideas
- Subject-Verb Agreement: Singular subjects take singular verbs; plural subjects take plural verbs. Watch for tricky subjects like "each," "everyone," "neither," and collective nouns.
- Tense Consistency: A sentence should maintain the same tense throughout unless there's a logical reason to shift. Past actions need past verbs; present habits need present verbs.
- Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement: Pronouns must match their antecedents in number and gender. "Everyone" is singular, so it takes "his/her," not "their" (in formal grammar).
- Parallelism: Items in a list or comparison must follow the same grammatical structure. "He likes reading, writing, and to swim" breaks parallelism.
- Article Usage: "A" before consonant sounds, "an" before vowel sounds. Uncountable nouns don't take "a/an." Specific references need "the."
Watch out for
- Trusting your ear over rules → Many errors are deliberately constructed to "sound okay." Always apply the specific grammar rule; don't just read aloud and guess.
- Ignoring the "No Error" option → Students often force-find errors that don't exist. Some sentences have no error. If every part checks out against rules, confidently mark "No Error."
- Confusing "than" and "when" with time conjunctions → "No sooner...than" and "Hardly...when" are fixed pairs. Students often swap them. Memorize: sooner goes with than (both have 'n'), hardly goes with when.
Quick reference
- Subject separated from verb: Mentally remove the middle phrase; match subject directly to verb.
- Collective nouns: Team, jury, committee, government — singular verb when acting as one unit.
- Neither/nor, either/or: Verb matches the nearer subject.
- Fixed pairs: No sooner–than, hardly–when, not only–but also, between–and, prefer–to.
- Scan for these red flags: "more better," "most fastest," "return back," "since five years" (should be "for five years").
Check yourself: 3 questions
1. Read the sentence to find out whether there is any grammatical error in it. The error, if any, will be in one part of the sentence. The letter of that part is the answer. If there is no error, the answer is 'D'. The government have announced (A) / a new scheme to provide (B) / financial assistance to farmers. (C) / No error (D)
2. Read the sentence to find out whether there is any grammatical error in it. The error, if any, will be in one part of the sentence. The letter of that part is the answer. If there is no error, the answer is 'D'. Each of the employees (A) / were given a bonus (B) / for their outstanding performance this year. (C) / No error (D)
3. Read the sentence to find out whether there is any grammatical error in it. The error, if any, will be in one part of the sentence. The letter of that part is the answer. If there is no error, the answer is 'D'. The manager asked his team (A) / to complete the project (B) / within the prescribe deadline. (C) / No error (D)
This lesson is cut from the topic's note, not rewritten. Fact-checked on 21 Oct 2026: an AI-assisted check of this note against cited sources; the errors it found were corrected that day. Some errors may remain. The questions are from Shishya's validated question bank.
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