Study Notes : Error Detection

               STUDY NOTES ON ERROR DETECTION                                                  

About Error Detection 

In most of the bank exams, error detection is asked. It is a subsection of Reading Comprehension. The aim behind questions based on error detection is to check candidates’ ability to identify sentences that are either correct or require correction. As you all know, a sentence is a group of words making a complete sense. Usually, sentences are formed following a grammatical structure in which a verb follows subject and then comes the object. However, being a bank aspirant, you must be well aware of the other sentence parts such as articles, punctuation, tenses, modals, etc. 

Weightage of Error Detection in IBPS PO Exam

In order to excel your overall performance in IBPS PO Exam 2019, Error Detection is one of the most important topics that you should not be ignoring. Error Detection covers around 5-10 marks in IBPS PO Prelims level. Hence, prepare this topic considering the number of marks it covers. It will boost up your performance in the exam and increase the overall score. 

Basic concepts of Error Detection

For understanding the basic concepts of Error Detection, the candidates must be well aware about the basic grammar rules pertaining to different parts of a sentence. If not, it will be a tough task for you to spot errors in a sentence.  However, once you have grabbed the concepts, you will be able to spot the error/s in no time. Here are some tips for error detection:-

(a)Countable and uncountable noun– Both singular and plural forms of countable noun exist. 

Whereas a non-countable noun is opposite of countable nouns and collective nouns, thus it does not have a plural form and takes singular verb always.

Example: (i) We decided to sell the damaged furniture of the house

Here, ‘furniture’ is non-countable noun and plural from of ‘furniture’ as ‘furnitures’ does not exists. 

(b)Possessive Noun-When possession is to be shown that is something belong to someone or something, ‘s’ is added to a singular noun whereas ‘‘s’ “apostrophe s” to a plural one.

i.e. (i)The girl’s doll (a girl)

(ii)The girls’ doll (two or more girls)

(c)Pronouns (singular and plural)–   There are some pronoun that often look like plural but they are used as singular taking singular verbs. Consider the following examples-

i.e. (i) Even one of the oranges was not ripe (not ‘were’)

(ii)Everyone has (not ‘have’) applied for the post.

(d)Adjectives (Comparative and superlative)-When two things are compared, we use comparative adjectives, but the things compared are not more than one. 

i.e. (i) Ravi is taller than Riddhi.

In order to express highest or extreme degree of adjective, Superlative degree is used. 

i.e. (i) Among all the students in the class, Katyayani is the most studious.

(e) Preposition– A preposition acts as a bond that links phrases, nouns and pronouns to other words in a sentence. 

It must be remembered that a preposition is always followed by a noun whereas a verb never follows a preposition. In case, you want a verb following a preposition, it must be in (-ing) form which is actually a gerund or a verb in noun form. 

i.e. (i) The Box is on the table.

(ii) The Box is leaning against the table.

Apart from the above concepts, there are many more such as conjunctions, subject object predicate, Participles, Punctuation, Subject verb agreement rule, etc. all these concepts can be understood with lots of practice. Over time, you will find yourself solving any kind of error detection effortlessly.  

                        Types of errors asked in IBPS PO 

1-Errors based on subject verb agreement– it is one of the main errors in error detection. The basic rule is verb should be always agreeing with its subject.

i.e. (i) The list of items is/are on the desk. (is)

(ii)The bouquet of red roses lends/lend colour and fragrance to the room (lends)

2-Errors based on pronoun usage– The main point to remember about this kind of error is –

The pronoun used in the sentence should agree with its antecedents. 

i.e. (i) Sita told Aakriti that she should participate in the singing competition. 

Here, it is not clear as who should participate in the singing competition. 

3-Verb-tense errors– The sentence should have a correct order of the events’ occurrence. This happens when verbs used in a sentence are in the right tense. 

i.e. (i) It is raining for two days (incorrect)

(ii) It has been raining for two days (correct)

4-Errors in Idioms and phrases and singular words– To detect errors based on idioms and phrases, you need to be well-versed about the same. Having an enhanced exposure to English language will help you achieving this goal. 

i.e. (i) The girl was cut of in  the bloom of her life (cut off)

Directions(1)-Read each sentence to find out whether there is any grammatical or idiomatic error in it. The error, if any, will be in one part of the sentence. The alphabet corresponding to that part is your answer. If there is ‘No error’, the answer is (e). (Ignore errors of punctuation, if any.)

Q1. The priest together with (A)/his followers were fatally injured (B)/in the accident which occurred last night (C)/near the unmanned railway crossing. (D)/No Error (E)

(a) A

(b) B

(c) C

(d) D

(e) E

S1. Ans (b)

Sol. In the second part of the sentence, the word “were” will be replaced by the word “was” because when two subjects are combined with ‘together with’, the main subject is the one which is written before together with, and the verb follows the main subject. All other parts of the sentence are correct. Hence, option (b) will be the correct answer

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