Sentence Correction / Improvement — Study Notes

Overview

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.

This topic carries 2–3 questions per exam and directly tests subject-verb agreement, tense consistency, preposition use, article usage, pronoun reference, modifiers, parallelism, and idiomatic expressions. Mastery here improves not just your score but also your overall English writing skills. The key challenge is distinguishing between what "sounds right" and what is grammatically correct according to standard rules. You must develop the habit of identifying the specific grammar rule being tested in each sentence.

Success requires knowing core grammar rules, recognizing common error patterns, and practicing elimination techniques. Always read the entire sentence even after spotting the underlined part—context determines correctness.

Key Concepts

• **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.

• **Modifiers and Placement**: Adjectives and adverbs must clearly modify the intended word. Misplaced modifiers create ambiguity or absurdity. Participle phrases at sentence start must modify the subject.

• **Parallelism**: Items in a list or comparison must follow the same grammatical structure—all nouns, all gerunds, or all infinitives, not mixed.

• **Idiomatic Expressions**: English has fixed phrases that don't follow logical rules. Learn standard idioms (pay attention *to*, in spite *of*, on behalf *of*).

Formulas / Key Facts

• **Common irregular verb pairs**: lie/lay/lain vs. lay/laid/laid; rise/rose/risen vs. raise/raised/raised; sit/sat/sat vs. set/set/set
• **Collective nouns** (team, committee, family) take singular verbs when acting as a unit, plural when members act individually
• **Neither/nor and either/or**: Verb agrees with the nearest subject
• **Each, every, everyone, everybody, no one, nobody**: Always singular
• **"One of the + plural noun"**: Takes singular verb (One of the students *is*)
• **Comparatives and superlatives**: Use "more/most" with multi-syllable adjectives; "-er/-est" with single-syllable ones
• **Double negatives**: Two negatives make a positive—grammatically incorrect in standard English
• **Correlative conjunctions**: not only...but also, either...or, neither...nor, both...and—require parallel structure

Worked Examples

**Example 1**: *He **don't** know the answer to this question.*

• Underlined: don't
• Error: Subject-verb agreement violation
• "He" is third person singular, requiring "doesn't" not "don't"
• **Correct alternative**: doesn't

**Example 2**: *The committee **have** decided to postpone the meeting.*

• Underlined: have
• Analysis: "Committee" is a collective noun treated as singular when acting as one unit
• Context shows unified action (one decision)
• **Correct alternative**: has

**Example 3**: *She is **senior than** me in the office.*

• Underlined: senior than
• Error: "Senior" is a comparative adjective that takes "to" not "than"
• Similar words: junior to, superior to, inferior to, preferable to
• **Correct alternative**: senior to

**Example 4**: *Walking down the street, **the trees looked beautiful**.*

• Underlined: the trees looked beautiful
• Error: Dangling modifier—"walking" seems to modify "trees"
• The person walking should be the subject
• **Correct alternative**: I saw beautiful trees OR the beautiful trees caught my eye

**Example 5**: *He enjoys **to swim**, to run, and cycling.*

• Underlined: to swim
• Error: Lack of parallelism—mixing infinitives with gerund
• All items in list must match
• **Correct alternative**: swimming (making it: swimming, running, and cycling)

Common Mistakes

**Mistake 1**: Choosing "No improvement" too quickly when the sentence sounds acceptable. → Fix: Systematically check subject-verb agreement, tense, prepositions, and articles even if the sentence sounds fine. Colloquial English differs from grammatical English.

**Mistake 2**: Confusing "less" and "fewer"—using "less" with countable nouns. → Fix: Use "fewer" for countable items (fewer students, fewer chairs); "less" for uncountable (less water, less time).

**Mistake 3**: Ignoring the entire sentence and focusing only on the underlined part in isolation. → Fix: Context matters. Read the full sentence to understand tense requirements, logical flow, and what the sentence actually means.

**Mistake 4**: Applying rules mechanically without considering meaning—for example, always making collective nouns singular. → Fix: Check if the collective acts as one unit or if individual members are emphasized. "The jury were divided" (members disagree) vs. "The jury has delivered its verdict" (single decision).

**Mistake 5**: Selecting answers that change the intended meaning rather than just correcting grammar. → Fix: The correct alternative must preserve the original meaning while fixing the error. Don't choose an option that is grammatically correct but semantically different.

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—about 20–25% of questions have correct original sentences
• Pronouns like "everyone," "anyone," "no one" are singular: "Everyone *has* his or her book" (not "their" in formal grammar, though "their" is increasingly accepted)