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Tips for Error Spotting in the English Language Section
Here, we bring you some tips for error spotting in the English Language section of the bank exam syllabus:
1. Certain nouns being a singular form represent plurality and therefore, take a plural verb in a sentence.
Example: police, clergy, people, peasantry, cattle.
- People has left. (Incorrect)
- People have left. (Correct)
2. Certain nouns take the plural verb because of their plural form.
Example: Clothes, Scissors, trousers, amends, spectacles, thanks.
- The spectacles is missing. (Incorrect)
- The spectacles are missing. (Correct)
3. When a noun denoting weight, number, money, length or measure is following a number, the noun form does not change as long as another noun or pronoun follows it.
Example: Million, pair, meter, year, dozen.
- This is a 9-meters scale. (Incorrect)
- This is a 9-meter scale. (Correct)
4. When the pronoun ‘one’ is used, it should be maintained throughout the whole sentence.
- One must help his siblings. (Incorrect)
- One must help one’s siblings. (Correct)
To explore more about the Verbal Ability section, check at the linked article.
5. For living people ‘whose’ is generally used and for things that are non-living ‘which’ is used.
- Which phone is kept on charging? (Incorrect)
- Whose phone is kept on charging? (Correct)
6. ‘Fewer’ is used for denoting number while ‘Less’ is used for denoting quantity.
- No less than thirty dogs were. (Incorrect)
- No fewer than thirty dogs were. (Correct)
7. Sentences are always opposite to question tags, for example, if the question tag is positive then the sentence is negative and vice versa.
- It’s a bit early, is it? (Incorrect)
- It’s a bit early, isn’t it? (Correct)
To learn more about SBI PO Syllabus, check at the linked article.
8. Instead of ‘who’ or ‘which’, the relative pronoun ‘that’ is used after adjectives in the superlative degree.
- These are the best which he could get. (Incorrect)
- These are the best that he could get. (Correct)
9. ‘As’ is used both before and after the adjective to show equality.
- I can write as fast, if not faster than her. (Incorrect)
- I can write as fast as, if not faster than her. (Correct)
10. ‘Though’ is always followed by ‘yet’ in a sentence and not by ‘but’.
Thus,
- Though he is rich but he is kind. (Incorrect)
- Though he is rich, yet he is kind. (Correct)