Spotting Errors

Here we are sharing second part of  "English language:"spotting error" for bank exams". Before reading this make sure that you already read ENGLISH LANGUAGE:"SPOTTING ERRORS" FOR BANK EXAMS(PART1). Some common errors occur in the use of Adjectives and Adverbs are explained here.

Adjectives,Adverbs,Adverbial order-Some important rules.

Rule1.The comparative adjectives like ‘inferior’,’superior’,’prior’,’posterior’,’preferable’ etc. are followed by ‘to’

Examples:

1.Death is preferable to dishonor.

2.He is senior to me in service by five years.

Rule2:when two persons or things are compared with each other, the latter term of comparison must exclude the former by the use ‘other’.

Example:

1.He is more intelligent than any other student of the class.

2.No other leader in the country is as popular as Jawaharlal Nehru.

Rule3:’Less’ refers quantity only, whereas ‘fewer’ denotes number.

Example:

1.No fewer than fifty persons were killed in the attack.

2.We do not sell less than one quintal of wheat.

Rule4:Use of ‘Little’, ‘a little’ and ‘the little’.

Little-it  has a negative meaning and means ‘hardly any’

a little-it has a positive meaning and means ‘some’, though not much.

The little- means ‘not much’, but all that is.

Example:

1.He has liitle knowledge of politics( means practically no knowledge).

2.There was a little milk left in the pot.(some, though not much).

3.He sold the little gold he got from his mother.(not much, but all that is).

Rule5:When two persons or things are compared , it is important to see that comparison is between them only.

Incorrect:The population of Mumbai is greater than Delhi.

Correct:The population of Mumbai is greater than that of Delhi.

Incorrect:Shelley’s poems are more lyrical than Byron.

Correct: Shelley’s poems are more lyrical than that of Byron’s.

Rule6:Adjectives should not be used instead of adverbs

Example:

Incorrect:He retuned quicker than I expected.

Correct:He returned quickly than I expected

Practice Questions for "English language Spotting Error".

1.Though the first portion/ of the book was dull,but / the later part was/ quite interesting.

Ans:Subtitute ‘but’ by ‘yet’ or delete ‘but’. ’ Though is always followed by ‘yet’ or simply comma.

2.Everyone agrees/ that Rahul is wiser than/all the members/ of the family.

Ans:Put ‘other’ after ‘all’.Refer  Rule2.

3.Watch /how careful /the sparrow knits /the straws into one another to form a nest.

Ans:Change ‘careful’ to ‘carefully’ to make it an adverb.

4.Like the commission has recommended/ in its / report the rules need to be enforced more strictly.

Ans:Replace ‘like’  by ‘as’.

5.Although he/ only earns eight hundred rupees a month,/ he manages to support /his family adequately.

Ans:Change the position of ‘only’. Put it before ‘eight hundred rupees’. As a general rule ‘only’ or ‘even’ should be placed immediately before the word it is intended to qualify.

6.After toiling very hard/ over a long period/ he found/ he had hardly made no profit at all.

Ans:Change ‘no’ to ‘any’ .’Hardly’ is a negative word and hence should not be followed a negative word.

7. It seems evidently/ to me that the visits they /made to the island /were not very frequent.

Ans: Change ‘evidently’ to ‘evident’ to make it adjective.

8.I had/ gone/ to Calcutta/ to deliver few good.

Ans: Add ‘a’ before few to make it positive.

9.He got to the top/ and was very disappointed / when he found that someone else/had reached it earlier.

Ans:Replace ‘very’ by ‘much’. Past participle is normally preceded by ‘much’ as present participle is normally preceded by ‘very’.

10. The students should / do their lessons regular/ from beginning /of the term.

Ans: Change ‘regular’ to regularly to make it adverb of manner.

11.It is always easy / to talk about a /thing than to do /it ourselves.

Ans: Change ‘easy’ to ‘easier’ to make it a comparative degree.

12.I often gave/ him money and/ I gave /him few yesterday.

Ans: Replace ‘few’ by ‘some’. ’Few’ denotes number and ‘some’ denotes a quantity or an amount.

13. My all hopes /were dashed to the ground/ when I came to know /that my son had fallen in bad company.

Ans:Put ‘all’ before ‘my’.   ‘ my all’ is a faulty expression. Rectify it as ‘all my’.

14.  We seldom /or ever see / those happy/ who are selfish.

Ans:Replace ‘ever’ by ‘never’. ‘Seldom’ is a negative word and it must be  paired with a negative word.

15.Two first /chapters of this/ book are /very interesting.

Ans:Replace ‘two first’ by ‘first two’.

ENGLISH LANGUAGE:"SPOTTING ERRORS" FOR BANK EXAMS(PART3).

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simon     17:40:00     5 comments:

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.

Click here to read Spotting Errors Part2

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simon     17:41:00     No comments: