Spotting Errors for bank exams
English error spotting in bank test:In almost all bank exams, English section contains 5 questions on "spotting error".Most of the candidates find it difficult to answer these questions.You can easily Score five out of five from this section if you are ready to study some important rules of usage of nouns,pronouns,verbs,articles,adverbs,adjective,preposition,conjunctions etc..Here we are sharing some common errors occur in the use of article,nouns and pronouns.
Use of Articles,Nouns,Pronouns –Some important rules
Rule1:Countable nouns take ‘a’ or ‘an’:’a’ in the case of countable noun giving out a consonant sound,and ‘an’ in the case of a countable noun giving out a vowel sound.
Examples.
1.He has written a letter to his friend.
2.I saw an elephant in the zoo.
3.Please give me a one-rupee coin.
4.He is an honest worker.
5.He is an M.B.A holder.
Rule2:Article ‘The’ should be used with the names of the following”
Rivers,mountains,monuments,great books,ocean,islands,descriptive names of countries,newspapers,directions,unique things etc..
Examples:
1.The Ganges is a holy river.
2.Medicinal herbs are found in Himalayas.
3.The sun rises in the East.
4.The Gita is a sacred book of Hindus.
5.The U.S.A is the most powerful country in the world.
Rule3.The definite article ‘The’Should be used with the superlative and comparative degrees.
1.He is the strongest man in the group.
2.The more he works, the more he earns.
Rule4 :The definite article ‘the’ is omitted with the names of persons,games,diseases,days,months,etc.
Examples.
1.He plays tennis in the evening.
2. He has been suffering from malaria for the last two weeks.
3.Sunday is a holiday.
4.Ram is a brave boy.
5.He will leave for England in January.
Rule5:Dear, fish, sheep, swine, pice, apparatus, yoke, etc. are some of the nouns which have the same form both in singular and plural.
Example.
1.His father had a hundred sheep.
2.Deer are grazing in the field.
Rule6:Some nouns like bellows,scissors,spectacles,trouser,riches,drawers,remains,assets,breeches,credentials etc..are used only in plural.
1.The mortal remains were consigned to the flames.
2.His trousers are torn and worn out.
3.Riches do many things.
However some of the nouns though plural in form are commonly used in singular.For example, Mathematics, Politics, News, Mechanics, News, innings, wages etc.
Examples.
1.No news is good news.
2.Team India won by an innings.
Rule7:Some of the collective nouns like , People, cattle, poultry, gentry,offspring, police etc.. are singular in form but always used as plural.
Example:
1.Catttle are grazing in the field.
2. she was the mother of many offspring.
Rule 8:Scenery,furniture ,information , poetry, mischief, advice etc.. are some of the nouns used in the singular only.
1. They had too much furniture for the small apartment
2.The scenery of Kashmir is very charming.
3. The signal contained thousands of bits of information.
Rule9:Verbs like avail, absent, acquit, enjoy, reverse, resign, pride, exert etc. are followed by reflexive pronouns.
Examples.
1.He absented himself from the meeting.
2.He will avail himself of this chance.
3.He acquitted himself creditably.
Reflexive pronouns are never used with the following verbs:
Keep,feed,break,qualify,smokes,spread,conceal, hide, qualify etc..
Examples.
1.He hid behind the bushes.
2.He fed on labours of others.
3.He kept away from college.
Rule10:When two nouns are joined by ‘either…or’, ‘neither….nor’ the verb agrees with the subject nearest to it.
Examples.
1.Neither you nor he is to blame.
2.Either kamala or her friends have been responsible for this incident.
Rule 11:When two nouns are closely connected the apostrophe’s is added only two the second;
Example:
1.Ram and Raghu’s house.
2.Anita and Arun’s wedding.
Each of two or more nouns implying separate possessions must take separate possessive sign;
Example :
1.Mohan’s and Hari’s farms.
2.Shelly’s and Keats’s poems.
Rule12: A pronoun must agree with its antecedent in person,number and gender.Where the pronoun ‘one’ is used, it should be used throughout.
Example.
1.One must do one’s duty well.
2.Every man must discharge his duty well.
English language common errors-Practice questions:
1.Many a man /have /been working / under me.
Ans.Change ‘have’ to ‘has’. ‘Many a’ is always followed by a singular noun and a singular verb.
2.I have/two sister-in-laws/whose husbands /are settled in dubai.
Ans:Replace ‘sister-in-laws’ by ‘sisters-in-law’.
3.In my youth I used to visit Sharma’s and Chawla’s company.
Ans: Delete S’ from Sharma’s -rule 11
4.This girl /wrote an essay/so well that/her teacher was exceedingly pleased with her.
Ans:Substitute ‘an’ by ‘the’ before ‘essay’.The sentence lays emphasis on ‘essay’.
5.Different/authorities defines/intelligence in/different ways.
Ans:Change ‘defines’ to ‘define’ to make it agree with plural noun ‘authorities’.
6.Everyone of the students/has brought/his/identity card.
Ans:Where the number is limited or is implied to be limted ‘each one’ will be a better usage than ‘every one’.
7.India is /one of the leading /film producing country /in the world.
Ans:Change ‘country’ to ‘countries’.The word ‘countries’ has not been used for ‘India’ but for countries which produces films and out of which India is one.
8.Let you and I /ponder over the basic/ question that students/do not get good guidance.
Ans:Subtitute ‘I’ by ‘me’.’Let’ is always followed by objective form of pronoun.
9.None of two girls/ who were present/there appeared to be inclined / to listen to sane advice.
Ans:’ Substitute’ none by ‘neither’.’None’ is used in reference to more than two.In reference to two ,’neither’ is used.
10.None of us were /really very happy/when the guests/ got entry into the house.
Ans:Replace ‘were’ by ‘was’.’None’ takes a singular verb.But when ‘none’ is used alone,it takes plural verb.Eg:None are doing as bad as….
11.He didn’t do anything;/he fed himself /on the /labours of others.
Ans:Delete ‘himself’ after fed.See rule9.
12.’Paradise lost’ is / one of the world’s epics/which have carved out immortal /niches in the literary history of the world.
Ans: Add ‘the’ before ‘Paradise lost’.See rule2.
13.The man and his horse/which you saw /on the road yesterday /are dead.
Ans:Change ‘which’ to ‘that’ .Relative pronoun referring to man and animal together is ‘that’ instead of which.
14.There were /ten women passengers in/ the cabin; they quarrelled with each other/ over sitting space .
Ans:Change ‘each other’ to ‘one another’ .’Each other’ is used in reference to two; in reference to more than two ‘one another’ is used.
15.Rahul, the proprietor /and the manager/of the firm, was deeply loved /by his employees.
Ans:Delete ‘the’ before ‘manager’.When two singular subjects refer to the same person,only first one should be preceded by article.
Ans.Change ‘have’ to ‘has’. ‘Many a’ is always followed by a singular noun and a singular verb.
2.I have/two sister-in-laws/whose husbands /are settled in dubai.
Ans:Replace ‘sister-in-laws’ by ‘sisters-in-law’.
3.In my youth I used to visit Sharma’s and Chawla’s company.
Ans: Delete S’ from Sharma’s -rule 11
4.This girl /wrote an essay/so well that/her teacher was exceedingly pleased with her.
Ans:Substitute ‘an’ by ‘the’ before ‘essay’.The sentence lays emphasis on ‘essay’.
5.Different/authorities defines/intelligence in/different ways.
Ans:Change ‘defines’ to ‘define’ to make it agree with plural noun ‘authorities’.
6.Everyone of the students/has brought/his/identity card.
Ans:Where the number is limited or is implied to be limted ‘each one’ will be a better usage than ‘every one’.
7.India is /one of the leading /film producing country /in the world.
Ans:Change ‘country’ to ‘countries’.The word ‘countries’ has not been used for ‘India’ but for countries which produces films and out of which India is one.
8.Let you and I /ponder over the basic/ question that students/do not get good guidance.
Ans:Subtitute ‘I’ by ‘me’.’Let’ is always followed by objective form of pronoun.
9.None of two girls/ who were present/there appeared to be inclined / to listen to sane advice.
Ans:’ Substitute’ none by ‘neither’.’None’ is used in reference to more than two.In reference to two ,’neither’ is used.
10.None of us were /really very happy/when the guests/ got entry into the house.
Ans:Replace ‘were’ by ‘was’.’None’ takes a singular verb.But when ‘none’ is used alone,it takes plural verb.Eg:None are doing as bad as….
11.He didn’t do anything;/he fed himself /on the /labours of others.
Ans:Delete ‘himself’ after fed.See rule9.
12.’Paradise lost’ is / one of the world’s epics/which have carved out immortal /niches in the literary history of the world.
Ans: Add ‘the’ before ‘Paradise lost’.See rule2.
13.The man and his horse/which you saw /on the road yesterday /are dead.
Ans:Change ‘which’ to ‘that’ .Relative pronoun referring to man and animal together is ‘that’ instead of which.
14.There were /ten women passengers in/ the cabin; they quarrelled with each other/ over sitting space .
Ans:Change ‘each other’ to ‘one another’ .’Each other’ is used in reference to two; in reference to more than two ‘one another’ is used.
15.Rahul, the proprietor /and the manager/of the firm, was deeply loved /by his employees.
Ans:Delete ‘the’ before ‘manager’.When two singular subjects refer to the same person,only first one should be preceded by article.
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