Spotting Errors

Here we are sharing third 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) and ENGLISH LANGUAGE:"SPOTTING ERRORS" FOR BANK EXAMS(PART2).  Some common errors occur in the use of Verb, Infinitive ,verbal Nouns, Gerunds ,and Participle are explained here.

Common Errors in the use of Verb, Infinitive ,verbal Nouns, Gerunds , Participle( Some important rules)

Rule1: In case of two nouns or pronouns connected by ‘not only … but also’, the verb agrees with the second noun or pronoun.

Examples

1.Not only the teacher but also the students were ready to go.

2.Not only the mother but also the children were laughing loudly.

Rule2:When two subjects are joined by ‘as well as’, the verb agrees with first one.

Examples.

1.The principal as well as professors was present in the ceremony.

Rule3:No future after temporal conjunctions. The clause beginning with ‘until’, ‘when’, ‘before’ ,’after’ and ‘if’ etc. remain in the present tense.

Examples:

1.If it rains he will not come.(not will rain)

2.When he goes there, he will meet his friend.(not will go)

Rule4:’Either’ , ‘Neither’, ’each’, ‘every one’ ,’none’,  must be followed by a singular verb.

Examples :

1.Neither of his two sons is settled in life.

2.Either of these  two boys is at fault.

3.None of the five girls has books.

Rule5: ‘None’ when used alone takes a plural verb though it looks properly singular.

Example:None are so deaf as those who will not hear.

Rule6:If the singular subjects are preceded by ‘each’ or  ‘every’ the verb is usually  singular.

Example:Every man and every woman was shocked at the death of Jawaharlal Nehru.

Rule7:When the subject of a verb is relative pronoun, the relative should be refered to its true antecedent or antecedents to regulate the number and person.

Incorrect: Shakespeare was on of the greatest geniuses that has ever lived.

Correct: Shakespeare was on of the greatest geniuses that have ever lived.

Rule8:When the verb comes before its subject it may agree with the first one.

Example:

1.Here  is described the charm and the loveliness of the Srinagar valley.

2.Such was the tact, intelligence and heroism of the leader.

Rule9:present perfect tense , since it denotes present time, cannot be qualified by any adverb or adverbial phrase denoting past time as ‘last’, ‘formerly’, ‘ago’ ,’yesterday’, etc.

Incorrect:I have met him yesterday .

Correct:I  met him yesterday .

Rule10:Continuous tense in place of perfect continuous is incorrect when time is mentioned or implied.

Incorrect: I am doing this work for2 hours.

Correct: I have been doing this work for 2 hours.

Rule11:The particle should not be left without agreement or with no agreement at all’

Incorrect:Trying to escape ,his enemy overpowered him.

Correct:As he was trying to escape ,his enemy overpowered him.

Incorrect:Being a cold day ,he could not go out.

Correct:Its being a cold day, he could not go out.

Rule12:If a pronoun precedes a gerund , it must normally be possessive.

Incorrect:I do not like him mixing with bad people.

Correct:I do not like his mixing with bad people.

Practice questions.

1.The Student were /officially told that they are /not to cross the road /against the red light.

Ans:Change ‘are’ to ‘were’. The verb in the reported part must agree in tense with the verb of reporting  verb’.

2.Being a fine day /we went/ out for picnic /at Shimla.

Ans:’Add ‘it’ before ‘being’. Refer rule11.

3.She said/ that /she will help me /whenever I was in difficulty.

Ans:Change ‘will’ to ‘would’ in order to get it to agree with the past tense of the reporting.

4.I have been knowing / him for the last four the last four years,/ yet I haven’t been able to /establish a friendship with him.

Ans: Change ‘have been knowing’ to ‘have known’. Verb of perception are not normally in continuous or perfect continuous tense.

5.More leisure/ as well as an abundance of / goods are attainable / through automation.

Ans:Replace ‘are’ with ‘is’.When two subjects are joined by ‘as well as’ the verb agrees with the first subject.

6.You will not be allowed/ to go home/until you do not complete/ the job properly.

Ans: Delete ‘do not ‘.’Until’ is negative . Hence use of double negative will be wrong.

7.Our manager does not believe / that we are/ working sincerely/ and with interest for all these years.

Ans: Substitute ‘are working’ by ‘have been working’.Refer rule10.

8.My elder brother and sister/ helps me / in/ my home work.

Ans:Change ‘helps’ to ‘help’.The two separate nouns joined by ‘and’ take plural

 Verb.

9.If Preethi had worked hard/ she will/ have got/ the job she desired.

Ans:Replace ‘will’ by ‘would’.

10.I am waiting / for you/ at this spot/ for the last four hours.

Ans:Replace ‘am waiting ‘ by ‘ have been waiting’ .Refer Rule10.

11.Neither the master  nor /the /servant are  responsible /for this sad event.

Ans: Replace ‘are’ by ‘is’.Refer Rule4.

12.Our priest say / if you pray sincerely /God will listen to /your prayers/

Ans: Change ‘say’ to ‘says’ to make it singular with singular subject.

13.None of my brothers  are/ helping me /in/ my work.

Ans: Change ‘are’ to ‘is’. Refer Rule4

14.Did I not told/ you that it was quite / necessary/ to be in time?

Ans:Change ‘told’ to ‘tell’.The verb is used in first form with the helping verb ‘did’.

15.Motion sickness is affecting/ women more / often than men but/ the reason is unknown.

Ans:Change ‘ is affecting’ to ‘affects’. Continuous tense is normally not used with verbs of perception.

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simon     13:00:00     11 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: