Identify the part of the sentence that contains an error.

Answer: are kept. Step 1 (The Identification): The subject of the sentence is 'The collection' (Singular). The phrase 'of rare stamps' is an object of the preposition and shouldn't affect the verb. Step 2 (The Elimination): Part A correctly introduces the subject. Parts C and D are prepositions and nouns that follow standard rules. Step 3 (The Final Verdict): The singular subject 'collection' requires a singular verb 'is'. Thus, 'are kept' in Part B is the error.

Identify the part of the sentence that contains an error.

Answer: was present. Step 1 (The Identification): This sentence uses the 'Neither/Nor' correlative conjunction. Step 2 (The Elimination): In 'Neither/Nor' structures, the verb must agree with the *nearest* subject. Here, the nearest subject is 'the players' (Plural). Step 3 (The Final Verdict): Since 'players' is plural, the verb should be 'were'. Part C contains the error.

Identify the part of the sentence that contains an error.

Answer: If I was you. Step 1 (The Identification): This is an 'unreal' or hypothetical condition (Subjunctive mood). Step 2 (The Elimination): Part B correctly uses 'would not' for a Type 2 conditional sentence. Step 3 (The Final Verdict): For hypothetical 'If' clauses, 'were' is used for all subjects regardless of number. Correct: 'If I were you'. Part A is the error.

Identify the part of the sentence that contains an error.

Answer: are required. Step 1 (The Identification): The subject here is 'Each', which is always singular. Step 2 (The Elimination): 'Each of the students' is the correct phrase structure. However, the verb must align with 'Each'. Step 3 (The Final Verdict): 'Each' requires a singular verb ('is') and a singular pronoun ('his or her'). Part B ('are') is primarily wrong. Part C ('their') is also often considered an error in formal exams, but Part B is the immediate structural breach.

Identify the part of the sentence that contains an error.

Answer: then the train. Step 1 (The Identification): This sentence uses the adverbial conjunction 'Hardly...when'. Step 2 (The Elimination): Part A correctly uses inversion ('had I') for emphasis. Part B correctly uses the past participle ('reached'). Step 3 (The Final Verdict): 'Hardly' and 'Scarcely' are always followed by 'when', not 'then'. Correct: 'Hardly... when'. Part C is the error.

Identify the part of the sentence that contains an error.

Answer: talented girl. Step 1 (The Identification): The structure 'one of the...' always refers to one individual out of a larger group. Step 2 (The Elimination): 'She is' matches the singular subject 'She'. 'the most' correctly starts the superlative adjective. Step 3 (The Final Verdict): After 'one of the', the noun must be plural because you are choosing one from many. Correct: 'talented girls'. Part C is the error.

Identify the part of the sentence that contains an error.

Answer: is blunt. Step 1 (The Identification): 'Scissors' is a noun that always exists in a plural form because it has two parts. Step 2 (The Elimination): Nouns like 'scissors, pants, spectacles' always take a plural verb. Step 3 (The Final Verdict): The singular verb 'is' matches incorrectly with 'scissors'. Correct: 'The scissors... are blunt'. Part D is the error.

Identify the part of the sentence that contains an error.

Answer: than me. Step 1 (The Identification): This sentence is comparing two people using Latin adjectives. Step 2 (The Elimination): Adjectives ending in '-ior' (like senior, junior, superior, inferior) do not follow the standard 'than' comparison. Step 3 (The Final Verdict): These specific adjectives always take the preposition 'to', never 'than'. Correct: 'senior to me'. Part B is the error.

Identify the part of the sentence that contains an error.

Answer: are shocking. Step 1 (The Identification): 'News' is an uncountable noun that ends in 's' but is always singular in nature. Step 2 (The Elimination): Uncountable nouns (Information, Advice, News, Furniture) always take a singular verb. Step 3 (The Final Verdict): The plural verb 'are' is grammatically incorrect for the subject 'news'. Correct: 'is shocking'. Part D is the error.

Identify the part of the sentence that contains an error.

Answer: Ram and I. Step 1 (The Identification): 'Between' is a preposition. Step 2 (The Elimination): Prepositions must be followed by nouns or pronouns in the **Objective case**. Step 3 (The Final Verdict): The subjective case 'I' should be replaced by the objective case 'me'. Correct: 'Between Ram and me'. Part B is the error.

Identify the part of the sentence that contains an error.

Answer: were happy with. Step 1 (The Identification): The correlative conjunction 'Not only... but also' is used. Step 2 (The Elimination): Rule: The verb must agree with the *nearest* subject. The nearest subject is 'the principal' (Singular). Step 3 (The Final Verdict): 'were' is plural and does not match 'principal'. Correct: 'was happy'. Part C is the error.

Identify the part of the sentence that contains an error.

Answer: secretaries, were. Step 1 (The Identification): The subject 'The managing director' is followed by a phrase 'together with his secretaries'. Step 2 (The Elimination): Words like 'together with', 'as well as', 'along with' do not change the number of the subject. The verb must agree with the *first* subject. Step 3 (The Final Verdict): The first subject 'managing director' is singular. Thus, 'were' should be replaced by 'was'. Part C is the error.

Identify the part of the sentence that contains an error.

Answer: Being a rainy day. Step 1 (The Identification): This is an error of 'Dangling Participle'. Step 2 (The Elimination): The phrase 'Being a rainy day' lacks a subject. Without a separate subject ('It'), 'I' becomes the subject of the first part, implying 'I am a rainy day'. Step 3 (The Final Verdict): We must add 'It' to refer to the day. Correct: 'It being a rainy day'. Part A is the error.

Identify the part of the sentence that contains an error.

Answer: are a long. Step 1 (The Identification): The subject 'Ten miles' represents a specific quantity/distance. Step 2 (The Elimination): Rule: When a plural noun denotes a specific amount, weight, or distance thought of as a single unit, it takes a singular verb. Step 3 (The Final Verdict): 'Ten miles' is treated as one single distance. Therefore, 'are' should be 'is'. Part B is the error.

Identify the part of the sentence that contains an error.

Answer: wise student. Step 1 (The Identification): This sentence uses multiple adjectives for the same person in the superlative degree. Step 2 (The Elimination): Rule of Parallelism: All adjectives connected by 'and' must be in the same degree. Step 3 (The Final Verdict): 'Intelligent' is superlative ('most intelligent'), so 'wise' must also be superlative ('wisest'). Correct: 'most intelligent and wisest'. Part C is the error.

Identify the part of the sentence that contains an error.

Answer: never and. Step 1 (The Identification): The sentence uses two helping verbs ('have' and 'will') for the same main verb. Step 2 (The Elimination): Rule: If two helping verbs require different forms of the main verb, both forms must be explicitly stated. Step 3 (The Final Verdict): 'Have' requires the V3 form ('betrayed'), while 'will' requires V1 ('betray'). Since only V1 is present at the end, 'have' is missing its partner. Correct: 'I have never betrayed and will never betray'. Part B is the error.

Identify the part of the sentence that contains an error.

Answer: much more. Step 1 (The Identification): This is a classic 'Double Comparative' error. Step 2 (The Elimination): 'Prettier' is already a comparative degree adjective. Step 3 (The Final Verdict): We cannot use 'more' with a word that is already in the comparative form. Correct: 'much prettier' or 'prettier'. 'more prettier' is redundant. Part B is the error.

Identify the part of the sentence that contains an error.

Answer: was because. Step 1 (The Identification): The sentence starts with 'The reason why'. Step 2 (The Elimination): Rule of Redundancy: 'The reason why' and 'because' carry the same meaning. Step 3 (The Final Verdict): Standard English usage requires 'that' instead of 'because' when 'Reason' is the subject. Correct: 'The reason why... was that...'. Part C is the error.

Identify the part of the sentence that contains an error.

Answer: Me and my friend. Step 1 (The Identification): The subject position is occupied by 'Me and my friend'. Step 2 (The Elimination): Pronouns used as subjects must be in the **Subjective case** (I, He, She, They). Step 3 (The Final Verdict): 'Me' is an objective pronoun. It should be 'I'. Also, rule 231 (politeness) suggests others should come first. Correct: 'My friend and I'. Part A is the error.

Identify the part of the sentence that contains an error.

Answer: Supposing if. Step 1 (The Identification): The sentence uses two conditional words together: 'Supposing' and 'if'. Step 2 (The Elimination): Usage Rule: 'Supposing' and 'if' both introduce a condition and mean the same thing in this context. Step 3 (The Final Verdict): Using both is redundant. You should use either 'Supposing it rains' or 'If it rains'. Part A is the error.

Identify the part of the sentence that contains an error.

Answer: was in favor of. Step 1 (The Identification): The subject 'The majority of the committee' refers to individual members having an opinion. Step 2 (The Elimination): Rule: 'The majority of' followed by a collective noun or plural noun usually takes a plural verb when referring to the individuals in the group. Step 3 (The Final Verdict): Since the committee members are acting individually to form an opinion, 'were' is more appropriate than 'was'. Part B is the error.

Identify the part of the sentence that contains an error.

Answer: go for a walk. Step 1 (The Identification): This is a third conditional sentence (Past Unreal condition). Step 2 (The Elimination): Structure: Had + Subject + V3... Subject + would + have + V3. Step 3 (The Final Verdict): 'would have' must be followed by the past participle (gone), not the base form (go). Correct: 'would have gone'. Part D is the error.

Identify the part of the sentence that contains an error.

Answer: start. Step 1 (The Identification): The sentence begins with the phrase 'It is high time'. Step 2 (The Elimination): Grammar Rule: After 'It is time' or 'It is high time', the following clause must be in the **Simple Past** tense (V2). Step 3 (The Final Verdict): 'start' (V1) is incorrect. It should be 'started' (V2). Correct: 'It is high time that we started...'. Part C is the error.

Identify the part of the sentence that contains an error.

Answer: were right. Step 1 (The Identification): The subjects are 'size' and 'color', joined by 'Neither/Nor'. Step 2 (The Elimination): The verb must agree with the nearest subject, which is 'color' (Singular). The phrase 'of the gloves' is just a modifier. Step 3 (The Final Verdict): Since 'color' is singular, the verb should be 'was', not 'were'. Part D is the error.

Identify the part of the sentence that contains an error.

Answer: Walking along. Step 1 (The Identification): This is a dangling participle error. Step 2 (The Elimination): The subject of 'Walking' appears to be 'a truck' in the current structure, which is illogical. Step 3 (The Final Verdict): We need to specify who was walking. Correct: 'While he was walking along the road...'. Part A is considered the location of the error because the participle lacks a logical subject.

Identify the part of the sentence that contains an error.

Answer: are increasing. Step 1 (The Identification): The subject is the phrase 'The number of'. Step 2 (The Elimination): Rule: 'A number of' takes a plural verb, but 'The number of' takes a singular verb. Step 3 (The Final Verdict): Since 'The number' is the specific subject, it requires 'is'. Correct: 'is increasing'. Part D is the error.

Identify the part of the sentence that contains an error.

Answer: has gone up. Step 1 (The Identification): The subject is 'the prices' (Plural). Step 2 (The Elimination): The phrase 'of essential commodities' describes the prices but isn't the subject. Step 3 (The Final Verdict): Plural subject 'prices' requires the plural helping verb 'have'. Correct: 'have gone up'. Part D is the error.

Identify the part of the sentence that contains an error.

Answer: you do not. Step 1 (The Identification): The conjunction 'Unless' is already negative in meaning (If...not). Step 2 (The Elimination): Double Negative Rule: In English, two negatives in the same clause are not used. Step 3 (The Final Verdict): 'do not' is redundant with 'Unless'. Correct: 'Unless you work hard...'. Part B is the error.

Identify the part of the sentence that contains an error.

Answer: than the. Step 1 (The Identification): The sentence uses the correlative conjunction 'Scarcely'. Step 2 (The Elimination): Scarcely/Hardly are pairs that connect with 'when' or 'before'. Step 3 (The Final Verdict): 'than' is used with 'No sooner'. Scarcely must take 'when'. Correct: 'Scarcely... when'. Part C is the error.

Identify the part of the sentence that contains an error.

Answer: will come. Step 1 (The Identification): This is a first conditional sentence (Real future possibility). Step 2 (The Elimination): Structure: If + Simple Present... Future Simple. Step 3 (The Final Verdict): Two 'wills' cannot be used in a conditional sentence. The 'if' clause must be in simple present. Correct: 'If I come to Delhi...'. Part B is the error.

Home/Rajasthan Patwari - Complete Course/General English/

Error Spotting

Master this topic with zero to advance depth.

Expert Answer & Key Takeaways

Mastering Error Spotting is essential for high-fidelity technical architecture and senior engineering roles in 2026.

The Core Logic (The Golden Sequence)

When scanning a sentence for errors, follow this Golden Sequence:
1. Subject-Verb Agreement: Does the verb match the subject in number?
2. Tense Consistency: Is the timeline maintained throughout?
3. Parallelism: Are list items in the same grammatical form?

Example:

Q: The team of experts *has/have* arrived at the site.

Solution: The subject is 'The team' (Singular), not 'experts'. Thus, 'has' is the correct verb. Logic: Identify the 'Real Subject' first.

Practical Application (The Pronoun Alignment)

Pronouns must agree with their antecedents in number and gender. A common exam trap is using 'their' for singular indefinite pronouns like everyone, anyone, each.

Example:

Q: Everyone must complete *their* project by tomorrow. (Incorrect)

Solution: Use 'his or her' or 'his' instead of 'their' because 'Everyone' is grammatically singular. Logic: Indefinite pronouns are usually singular.

The Exam Attack (Hack) - Vertical Scanning

Instead of reading for meaning, scan vertically for structure.
Step A: Check the Subject.
Step B: Look at the Verb.
Step C: Check the Object/Preposition.
Hack: 70% of errors lie in the Subject-Verb-Tense connection.

Example:

Q: The quality of these mangoes *were* not good.

Solution: Scan: Quality (S) -> were (V). Quality is singular. Correct: *was*. Don't let adjacent plural nouns (mangoes) distract you.

The Trap Alert (The 'Either/Or' Nuance)

When subjects are joined by 'Either/Or' or 'Neither/Nor', the verb must agree with the nearest subject.

Example:

Q: Neither the manager nor the *employees* (is/are) responsible.

Solution: The nearest subject is 'employees' (Plural). Correct: *are*. Trap: Thinking 'Neither' always makes it singular.

Course4All Editorial Board

Verified Expert

Subject Matter Experts

Comprising experienced educators and curriculum specialists dedicated to providing accurate, exam-aligned preparation material.

Pattern: 2026 Ready

Updated: Weekly

← Previous TopicPara Jumbles

Next Topic →Sentence Improvement

Found an issue or have a suggestion?

Help us improve! Report bugs or suggest new features on our Telegram group.

Error Spotting

Expert Answer & Key Takeaways

The Core Logic (The Golden Sequence)

Practical Application (The Pronoun Alignment)

The Exam Attack (Hack) - Vertical Scanning

The Trap Alert (The 'Either/Or' Nuance)

Course4All Editorial Board

Explore More General English

Sentence Improvement

Fill in the Blanks

Active/Passive Voice

Direct/Indirect Speech

Found an issue or have a suggestion?