How to Prepare Spotting Errors

January 31, 2022

How to Prepare Spotting Errors

Spotting errors are asked in English comprehension tests in various competitive exams such as banking, insurance, SSC, railways, MBA, board exams. Etc. You need to spot sentences and error which are grammatically incorrect. This error can be anything from parts of speech such as noun, pronoun, singular/plural, adjective, tenses, etc. Hence, candidates need to be well prepared with all the rules of grammar and English language

Types of Errors

Error of Noun:

(a)The fan’s blade/ (b) has broken, so/ (c) I am going to market to buy new blade. / (d) No errors.

Here, “fan’s blade” should be replaced with “blade of fan”.

Error of Pronoun:

(a)Neither of the boys/ (b) has got/ (c) their result yet. / (d) No errors.

Here, “their” should be replaced with “his”.

Error of Adjective:

(a)Honest are/ (b) praised/ (c) sooner or later. / (d) No errors.

Here, “Honest” should be replaced with “The honest”.

Error of Verb:

(a)The old man / (b) prayed that he / (c) may live healthy. / (d) No errors.

Here, “may” should be replaced with “might”.

Error of Adverb:

Never I’ll go there. (Incorrect)

Never shall I go there. (Correct)

Error of Preposition:

(a)She will not / (b) listen / (c) what you say. / (d) No errors.

Here, “listen” should be followed by “to”.

Error of Conjunction:

(a)When his sister got a job / (b) then he was / (c) very happy. / (d) No errors.

Here, “then” should be removed. “When” is not followed by “then”.

Miscellaneous:

(a)If you both stood / (b) on the table / (c) it would have broken. / (d) No errors.

Here, “would have” should be replaced with “would”.

Notes:

(a)If you both stood / (b) on the table / (c) it would have broken. / (d) No errors.

Here, “would have” should be replaced with “would”.

Remain calm during the test.
No need to spend much time on a particular question. Move to the next question and review it in the end if time allows.
Go through a standard grammar book of your choice to brush up basic grammar rules. OR, refer to our teachers’ notes.
Read the sentence carefully, understand its meaning and objective, and then proceed.
Pay attention to spelling and grammar rules.
Practice as much you can. Try our FREE practice tests!