Error Spotting
Sentences, words and phrases are the basic elements of any language. Errors in sentences leave a poor impression on the readers. It becomes difficult to understand the exact meaning of these sentences and they also change the meaning of the sentence. So,
Error Spotting is a systematic way of identifying and rectifying these errors. It is commonly used while proofreading and editing written documents.
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Rules and Tips to Solve Error Spotting
- Read the sentence carefully. This is the foremost step in the process. Read it as many times as you can.
- Most of the time, there are spelling mistakes in any part of the sentence.
- Check for the correct usage of helping verbs as per the subject in a sentence, for eg., Helping Verb Subject
- is / has / does / was – all singular nouns & he / she / it
- am / do / was – I
- are / have / were – all plural nouns & you / we / they
- Check for the correct usage of main verbs in a sentence, for eg.,
- do / does / did + 1st form of the main verb
- has / have / had + 3rd form of the main verb
- will / shall / would / should + 1st form of the main verb
- will be / shall be / would be / should be + ‘ing’ form of the main verb
- Always check if the sentence is framed in active / passive voice OR direct / indirect speech.
- Check for the correct usage of all the tenses in a sentence, for eg., indefinite tense, continuous tense, perfect tense, perfect continuous tense.
- In the case of perfect continuous tense, always remember that “for” is used for denoting a period of time or duration (i.e., 2 months, 2 years etc.) while “since” is used for denoting the point of time (i.e., 1959, yesterday, tonight etc.).
- Check for the correct usage of the following:
- there (used as an adverb to denote the position) while their (denotes a pronoun)
- who / whoever (used as a subject) while whom / whomever (used as an object)
- whose (used to identify who owns what)
- then (denotes time and is mostly used with ‘if’) while than (denotes comparison).
- Check for the correct usage of articles in a sentence, for eg.,
- INDEFINITE ARTICLES: “a” – used with all consonants sound (eg., a kite) & “an” – used with all vowel sounds (eg., an MBA, an umbrella)
- DEFINITE ARTICLE: “the” – used when you are talking about something specific, historic places, planets, names of some continents / countries / oceans / rivers, etc. (like the United States of America, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, the Amazon, the Indian Ocean etc.
- Check for the correct usage of proper nouns and if they are written in CAPITAL letters, for eg., Neeta Arora, the Great Wall of China etc.
- Check for the correct usage of noun / pronoun / adjectives and adverbs in a sentence. Also, check if proper conjunctions and prepositions have been used.
- Always remember that generally, if one part of a sentence is in the past tense, the other half should also be in the past tense.
Practice Questions : For Error Spotting
Question 1: The inflation rate (a)/ is currently high in India (b)/ NO ERROR (c).
Answer 1: (a) Inflation is the correct spelling.
Question 2: She was my class teacher (a)/ and she didn’t
went (b)/ to the school yesterday (c)/ NO ERROR (d).
Answer 2: Only the 1st form of the main verb is used with ‘did’, it should be
go instead of went.
Question 3: Seema is not smarter (a)/
then my brother (b)/ when it comes (c)/ to playing chess (d)/ NO ERROR (e).
Answer 3: To show comparisons, we use
than.
Question 4: It has been (a)/ proved multiple times (b)/ that Riya is
a honest girl (c)/ NO ERROR (d).
Answer 4: (c) An should be used because ‘h’ is silent while pronouncing honest and it gives a vowel sound of ‘o’.
Question 5: The inspector asked Rahul (a)/ to report to the police station (b)/ as soon as he
comes from office (c)/ NO ERROR (d).
Answer 5: (c) Came should be used because the first half of the sentence is in the past tense.
Question 6: My mother was reading (a)/
times of india newspaper and (b)/ she found a really scary news (c)/ NO ERROR (d).
Answer 6: (b) The Times of India because it is a proper noun and
‘the’ is always used with its name.
Question 7: Whose did you (a)/ bump into at
there (b)/ party yesterday (c)/ NO ERROR (d)?
Answer 7: (a) Whom because it is being used as an object,
(b);
their used as a possessive adjective and not to denote a place/position.
Question 8: I could not reach there (a)/ because it had been (b)/ raining
for last night (c)/ NO ERROR (d).
Answer 8: (c) Since is used to denote the point of time.
Question 9: Although she is facing hardships (a)/ in her life
rather (b)/ she never deviates (c)/ from the path of truthfulness (d)/ NO ERROR (e).
Answer 9: (b) Yet is used with the conjunctions – ‘although’ or ‘though’.
Question 10: Seeing Aditya involved
upon (a)/ the murder case, his friends (b)/
are turning hostile (c)/ NO ERROR (d).
Answer 10: (a) In is the correct preposition and not ‘upon’,
(c);
had turned as the event is in past tense.