How To Master Error Spotting In English Language Section

In this article, we shall learn how to ace error spotting in the English Language section of bank exams. Aspirants who are willing to apply for the various Government exams apart from the bank exams must also go through these concepts of spotting the error carefully, as English language is a vital part of the syllabus for most of these exams.

English language is a subject where even people who are proficient in the language end up making mistakes in the grammar section. It is a normal tendency but the error-spotting section is not hard to master. Practising some guidelines is all that is needed to excel in this topic of the English Language syllabus.

To be able to answer the error spotting questions asked in the various Government exams correctly, it is essential that a candidate builds up a good command over English Grammar and vocabulary. Aspirants who are looking for assistance in this area can refer to the links mentioned below:

Candidates can check the detailed bank exam syllabus at the linked article.

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)

Candidates can find more such rules, list and topics on the General English for Competitive Exams in the linked page.

11. ‘Not’ is never used with ‘unless’ as ‘unless’ expresses a condition that is always used in the negative sense.

Thus,

• Unless you do not pay the fine, you will not be excused. (Incorrect)
• Unless you pay the fine, you will not be excused. (Correct)

12. ‘While’ implies a time duration of doing something and ‘When’ denotes a general sense.

Thus,

• When learning how to box, the technique is of utmost importance. (Incorrect)
• While learning how to box, the technique is of utmost importance. (Correct)

Candidates can check important Sentence Correction Questions asked in the English language section of various competitive exams.

Aspirants can also check the other important topics, which are included in the English Language section for the various bank and Government exams in the articles linked below:

To know more about bank exam preparation, check at the linked article.

Candidates can test their preparation for the English language section and solve questions based on error detection, from the links mentioned below:

• Free Bank Exam Quiz
• Free Mock Test Series for Bank Exams
• Previous Year Question Papers PDF with Solutions

Candidates willing to appear for bank exams can also check Bank General Awareness for the preparation of the GK section.

There are a few Probationary Officer post Bank exams in which the Mains phase comprises descriptive type paper as well, which includes Letter Writing and Essay writing. Candidates can also check the Letter Writing format for the Mains examination at the linked article.

Practise some exercises, after reading and learning these helpful techniques of error spotting. For more updated info on other topics of the English Language section, you can check BYJU’S useful articles to give your bank exam preparation an edge.

There are three major bank posts for which recruitment is conducted in the banking sector. For all of these posts, the English language section is common for both Prelims and Mains phase of the examination. Interested candidates can know more about the three posts by visiting the articles linked below:

• Bank PO – Probationary Officer Post
• Bank Clerk/ Junior Associate/ Assistant – Clerical Cadre Post
• Bank SO – Specialist Officer Post