This Chapter Deals with the Spotting of Errors in Sentences
- Spotting Errors Based on Subject-Verb Agreement
(i) A singular subject will take a singular verb.
(ii) Verb ending with ‘-s’ is singular.
(iii) The phrase “one of the” will always take a plural subject and a singular auxiliary verb after the subject.
(iv) Sentence using ‘each’ or ‘every’ will take a singular subject. E.g. Every child in the village was vaccinated. - Spotting Errors Based on Tenses
(i) A general fact or a statement expressing an opinion or a habitual action is expressed in the simple present tense. It is also called the present indefinite tense. E.g., He brushes his teeth.
(ii) To describe an event that started in the past and completed in the past, we use simple past.
(iii) To describe an event that is continuing in the present, at the time of speaking, we use present continuous tense. It is also called the present progressive tense. E.g., It is raining. It is also called the present progressive tense.
(iv) To describe an event that continued for some duration in the past, we use past continuous tense. It is also called the past progressive tense. E.g., The sun was shining brightly.
(v) To describe an event that happened in the past (usually the immediate past), and continues into the present or is relevant in the present, we use the present perfect tense. It is also used to describe someone’s experience, which has relevance at the time of speaking. We use the auxiliary verb has/have with the past participle of the main verb. E.g., I have exchanged the details with him.
(vi) To describe an event that happened in the past before another event which also occurred in the past, we use the past perfect tense. It is also called pluperfect. The past perfect tense is used to describe the sequence of events that have been completed. The earlier event is described in the past perfect tense, while the latter event is described in simple past. E.g., I had arrived at the airport when the news was announced. - Spotting Errors Based on Preposition
(i) A preposition is a word that is usually placed before nouns and describes relationships with another word or element. It usually gives additional information regarding the spatial arrangement or time. - ‘At’ is Used to Describe a Specific Time or Location. E.g., I met him at the station.
(i) The meeting is at 4 p.m
(ii) ‘On’ is used for days or dates. E.g., Americans celebrate Independence Day on the 4th of July. The last holiday was on Monday.
(iii) ‘For’ is used to describe a duration of time. E.g., The show went on for four hours.
(iv) ‘Since’ is used to describe a specific point in time. E.g. It has been raining since yesterday. The lecture has been going on since 4 p.m
(v) ‘In’ is used to describe a specific time of the day, week, month or year. E.g. I play tennis in the morning. The crop is harvested in summer.
(vi) ‘In’ is also used to describe a specific location that is in the interior of something. It is also used to describe a large area. E.g., The cat was in the box. I was in Canada.
(vii) ‘At’ is used to describe a specific location. It is used to describe an area smaller than that described by ‘in’. E.g., I met him at the store. I was staying at his place in Karnataka.
(viii) ‘On’ is used to describe the location of an object on the surface of another object. E.g., I was lying on the sofa.
(ix) ‘To’ is used to denote the final destination of a person or an object. E.g., He went to the class.
(x) ‘From’ is used to refer to the starting point of the journey of a person or a thing. - Spotting Errors Based on Articles
(i) Articles are used to add specificity to a noun.
(ii) The definite article ‘the’ is used to limit the description of the sentence to one specific noun. E.g. Please pass me the pen.
(iii) ‘The’ is also used to generalize a group or a class of nouns. The hard-working people of the city were given incentives.
(iv) ‘A’ is used before the noun if it starts with a consonant sound (not consonant alphabets). E.g., A university is going to be established here.
(v) ‘An’ is used before vowel sound (not vowel alphabets). E.g., An honest man is never afraid. - Spotting Errors Based on Parts of Speech
(i) A noun is a word that is used to name a place, person, thing or an idea.
(ii) A proper noun is the specific name of a person or a thing. E.g., Ram, Mentos. A proper noun starts with a capital letter.
(iii) Some nouns are always used as uncountable nouns/mass nouns, and hence it is considered a singular noun. For example, furniture refers to a set or group of all items grouped together as a single entity. We always use ‘furniture’ instead of ‘furnitures’. Other examples are water, sugar, wood etc.
(iv) Pronouns are words that replace nouns.
(v) Pronouns agree with the nouns that they replace. Plural nouns are replaced by plural pronouns, and singular nouns are replaced by singular pronouns.
(vi) The three types of pronouns are 1. Nominative 2. Possessive 3. Objective
(vii) Nominative pronouns are used to denote the subject of a sentence. E.g. I, he, she etc.
(viii) Object pronouns are used to denote the object of a sentence. E.g. Me, him, her etc.
(ix) Possessive pronouns denote possession or ownership of something. E.g. His, hers, yours etc.
(x) Reflexive pronouns are used when the subject and object of a sentence are the same. E.g., Himself, herself, yourself, etc.
(xi) ‘Who’ is a pronoun used to refer to the subject of a sentence. E.g. Who is singing? ‘Whom’ is used to refer to the object of a sentence. E.g. To whom should I refer to in the letter? If the answer is ‘he’, use ‘who’. Suppose the answer is ‘him’, use ‘whom’. - Spotting Errors Based on Parallelism
(i) Words of the same quality or indicating similar functions should be in a similar format.
(ii) E.g. He is texting and driving. (correct) He is texting and drive. (incorrect) - Spotting Errors Based on Vocabulary
(i) Words similar in pronunciation may have different meanings. For example, affect is a verb which means impact. Effect is a noun which indicates the result of a change. Later means at a time in the future, latter means second of the two things mentioned.
(ii) Some words are more appropriate in certain situations. For example: ‘The jury reached a verdict’ is more appropriate than ‘the jury reached a decision’.
