Error Spotting & Improvement

Snapshot

• Spotting Errors and Sentence Improvement gives you a sentence (often split into labelled parts) and asks which part has a grammatical mistake, or which option best replaces an underlined portion.
• The errors come from a fixed, repeating set: subject–verb agreement, tense, articles, prepositions, pronouns, comparatives, parallelism, word order and redundancy.
• The idea that cracks it: run the sentence through a rule checklist instead of trusting how it sounds, because examiners choose errors that sound natural in everyday speech.
• Scoring is +5 / −1. If the checklist finds nothing wrong, the correct answer is "No error" (or "No improvement"), and it is a perfectly good answer.

Part 1 — What this section tests and why a checklist beats your ear

Written and reviewed by Omveer Thakur, English & Languages faculty at UniDrill (M.A. English, University of Delhi · 9 years teaching). Prepared for the CUET UG English paper.

Most students attack these questions by feel: reread the sentence and pick the part that "sounds off". The trouble is that the faulty forms are chosen because they sound normal. Everyday speech is full of one of my friend, different than, discuss about the issue, more better, the news are good. A casual ear lets all of these through. A rule checklist does not, because it tests the sentence against each rule in turn regardless of how it sounds.

There are two formats, with the same underlying rules.

Why it matters. The two formats are the purest test of grammar accuracy in the paper. They also reward speed: once the checklist is a reflex, you stop rereading and start testing, which is both more accurate and faster.

Part 2 — The error menu: what CUET can break

Part 3 — The method: a rule scan in a fixed order

Run the checklist in this order. The order is by frequency, so you usually find the error in the first two or three steps.

In an improvement question, apply the same scan to the underlined part, then choose the option that fixes that error without introducing another. Read the option back inside the full sentence; a choice that is correct alone can clash with the rest of the sentence.

Part 4 — Subject–verb agreement, the most tested rule

The verb agrees with the true subject in number, whatever stands between them. Bracket out the intervening phrase and test the subject and verb together.

Two notes. With a collective noun (jury, committee, team), the verb is singular when the group acts as one body and plural when the members act separately; context decides, and the exam rarely uses this when it is ambiguous. And with none, both singular and plural verbs are used; if both appear in the options, look for another error in the sentence.

Part 5 — Articles, nouns and pronouns

Articles. Use a or an by sound, not letter: a university, a one-rupee coin, an hour, an honest man, an MBA. Use the for something specific or unique (the sun), for superlatives (the best), for ordinals (the first), for rivers, seas and mountain ranges (the Ganges, the Himalayas), and in the rich, the poor. Omit articles before general plural nouns, languages, meals and games (She plays cricket, We had lunch). Fixed phrases keep their form: go to school (to study), go to the school (to visit the building), in hospital (as a patient).

Countable and uncountable nouns. These are always singular and take no plural s and no a/an: information, advice, furniture, luggage, scenery, equipment, knowledge, news, hair, evidence. The wrong forms are informations, advices, furnitures, a luggage. Use much / a little with uncountables and many / a few with countables, and less with uncountables but fewer with countables.

Pronouns.

Part 6 — Comparatives, parallelism, modifiers and negatives

Part 7 — Fixed expressions: prepositions, wrong verbs and redundancy

Many improvement questions turn on a stored phrase.

Redundancy repeats an idea that the sentence already carries. Cut one of the two words.

Part 8 — Worked examples with the reasoning

Example 1. One of the students (a) / have not (b) / submitted the work. (c) / No error (d) The true subject is one, not students. (b): should be has not.

Example 2. The quality of the apples (a) / in this shop (b) / are poor. (c) / No error (d) Bracket of the apples and in this shop; the subject is quality. (c): is poor.

Example 3. She is more intelligent (a) / than any other (b) / girls in her class. (c) / No error (d) After any other, the noun is singular. (c): girl in her class.

Example 4. He is senior than me by two years. Senior is a Latin comparative that takes to. He is senior to me.

Example 5. The Prime Minister, along with his ministers, were present. Along with does not make the subject plural. Was present.

Example 6. Between you and I, the plan is risky. Between is a preposition and needs the object case. Between you and me.

Example 7. If I was you, I would apologise. This is an unreal condition. If I were you.

Example 8. He is a honest man. Honest begins with a vowel sound because the h is silent. An honest man.

Example 9. The population of Delhi is larger than Mumbai. The sentence compares a population with a city. Larger than that of Mumbai.

Example 10. She likes reading, writing and to paint. The list mixes -ing forms with an infinitive. Reading, writing and painting.

Example 11. He returned back to his village. Return already means "come back". Returned to his village.

Example 12. Neither of the two answers is correct. / No error. Neither is singular and is agrees. The scan finds no broken rule, so the answer is No error.

Example 13. Hardly had I slept than the phone rang. Hardly pairs with when. Hardly had I slept when the phone rang.

Example 14. I am looking forward to meet you. In look forward to, to is a preposition and needs -ing. To meeting you.

Example 15. Improvement: Walking down the road, a snake bit him. (a) No improvement (b) he was bitten by a snake (c) a snake was biting him (d) the snake had bitten him. The opening phrase walking down the road must describe whoever the main clause is about, and a snake does not walk down roads. Option (b) makes he the subject, so the phrase describes the right person. (b).

Part 9 — Common traps

Part 10 — Rapid-fire practice with answers

Part 11 — A timed routine

In the exam, give a spotting item about 30 seconds: subject and verb first, then tense, then the fixed expressions. If nothing is wrong after the full scan, mark "No error" and move on.

Part 12 — Where this connects

This skill collects rules taught elsewhere. Tense choices are explained in Tenses and fixed prepositions in Prepositions. The same checks appear in gap-fills in Fill in the Blanks, and a wrong particle in a verb phrase belongs to Phrasal Verbs.

One-line revision: test the sentence against a fixed checklist (subject and verb, tense, articles, prepositions, pronouns, comparison, parallelism), trust the rule over your ear, cut redundancies, and pick "No error" when nothing is broken.