Sentence Correction / Improvement
About 6 min · English Language · English
Time worked out from the lesson's 363 words at 150 words a minute, plus a minute for each question.
Sentence Correction questions test your command over standard English grammar, usage, and style. In SSC CHSL, you'll encounter sentences with an underlined portion. Your task is to select the grammatically correct and contextually appropriate alternative from four options. Typically, one option is "No improvement" or "No correction required," which you must choose if the underlined part is already correct.
Key ideas
- Subject-Verb Agreement: The verb must match the subject in number (singular/plural) and person. Watch for intervening phrases that separate subject and verb—they don't affect agreement.
- Tense Consistency: Maintain logical time sequence. If a sentence begins in past tense, don't shift to present without reason. Time markers (yesterday, now, since 2010) guide tense choice.
- Article Usage: "A/an" for non-specific singular countable nouns; "the" for specific or previously mentioned items; zero article for uncountable nouns in general sense and plural nouns used generally.
- Preposition Accuracy: Certain verbs, adjectives, and nouns demand specific prepositions (interested in, different from, capable of). Memorize standard collocations rather than relying on instinct.
- Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement: Pronouns must match their antecedents in number, gender, and person. Indefinite pronouns (everyone, somebody) are singular and take singular verbs and pronouns.
Quick reference
- If subject and verb are separated by a phrase, mentally eliminate the phrase to check agreement
- Time markers control tense: "since/for" → present perfect; "yesterday/ago" → simple past
- After "one of the + plural noun," verb is singular: "one of the books *is*"
- Preposition pairs to memorize: afraid of, angry with (person)/*at* (thing), consist of, depend on
- When in doubt between two options, check if "No improvement" applies
Check yourself: 3 questions
1. The company has been working on this project <u>since two years</u>. Which of the following is the best way to improve the underlined part?
2. If I <u>would have known</u> about the meeting, I would have attended it. Which of the following is the best way to improve the underlined part?
3. The teacher asked the students <u>that they should maintain</u> silence in the library. Which of the following is the best way to improve the underlined part?
This lesson is cut from the topic's note, not rewritten. Fact-checked on 18 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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