Tips and Tricks: Error Identification | English Language & Comprehension for SSC CGL PDF Download

Tips and Tricks and Shortcuts

1. Read the sentence

• Carefully examine the sentence, identifying any errors, illogical words, or grammatical mistakes.

Take a look at the options given

• Thoroughly examine all available choices and assess whether the sentence requires modification. Note that some sentences are intentionally provided without the need for alteration, aiming to create confusion for the reader.

Substantiate your choice with a reason:

• In the situation mentioned above, if you believe the sentence appears correct, attempt to substitute or rearrange the words to verify if any alternative option seems appropriate or fits the context.

Pick the option that makes most sentence

• Occasionally, substituting various options within the question can aid in grasping the tone or context of the sentence. This approach facilitates the recognition of the appropriate grammar that should be employed.

The most common errors that can be found in a sentence are from varied grammatical topics. Let’s take a look at some:

• Verbs
• Pronoun
• Preposition
• Adjectives
• Gerund (ing form of verb)
• Noun
• Relative Pronoun
• Adverbs
• Subject and Object
• Comparative degree words
• Redundancy
• Parallelism

Q1: No one dares to disobey Ms. Johnson, as she is the strictest between all the teachers.
(a) Dares
(b) Strictest
(c) Between
(d)  No error
Ans: (c)
Between is used to denote two people, and the above sentence talks about all the teachers, where “among” should be used.

Q2: Shia hearing the news of mars mission which was initiated by ISRO.

(a) Hearing
(b) Of
(c) Which
(d) was
Ans: (a) 
Shia heard the news of mars mission which was initiated by ISRO.

Q3: Me and my friends went on a trip to manali last summers.
(a) went
(b) trip
(c) summers
(d) No error
Ans: (a)

Me and my friends went on a trip to Manali last summer. Summers is not a valid word, because summer is one season, not many. Therefore, the word ‘summer will be used instead of ‘summers’

Q4: M.S Dhoni are also called Captain cool.

(a) MS Dhoni
(b) Are
(c) captain cool
(d) No error
Ans: (b)
M.S Dhoni is also called Captain cool- This should be the correct answer. Since M.S Dhoni singular, ‘is’ should be used instead of ‘are’

Q5: Because Rahul and Rohit  were playing cricket, the ball hit a lady that was sitting on the bench.

(a) because
(b) were
(c) was sitting
(d) no errors
Ans: (a)
While Rahul and Rohit were playing cricket, the ball hit a lady that was sitting on the bench- This should be the correct answer.
Because stands for reason, but we use while when we want to show an activity is happening while another is going on. In this case, we will use ‘while’ not ‘because’.