Error spotting questions, with answers
Error spotting gives you a sentence split into three or four parts and asks which part contains a grammatical mistake, often with a further option for no error. The sentences are short and the errors are small: a word in the wrong form, a verb that disagrees with its subject, a preposition that does not belong. The difficulty is speed, because each sentence sounds almost right on a first read.
The answers below give a checking order for any sentence, then take the error families that recur (agreement, tense, pronouns, prepositions, adjectives and adverbs, and redundancy), each with worked sentences. Then take the free Verbal Ability diagnostic — ten questions drawn from all eight verbal topics — to see whether error spotting is among the topics to work on first.
The questions, with answers
1In what order should you check a sentence for errors?
In short: Find each verb and its subject first, then check tense, pronouns, prepositions and articles, and finally word forms and repeated meaning.
Reading for what sounds right is unreliable, because the errors are chosen to sound natural. A fixed order is faster. First find each verb and its real subject and check that they agree in number. Then check the tense against any time words, such as 'yesterday', 'since' or 'next year'. Then check each pronoun: does it refer clearly to one noun, and is it in the right form? Then prepositions and articles, which are usually fixed by the words around them. Last, check adjectives and adverbs, and look for a word that repeats a meaning already stated. Check each part against these rules, not against your ear.
2How do you catch an agreement error when the subject is far from its verb?
In short: Set aside any phrase between them, such as one starting with 'of', 'along with' or 'as well as', and read the subject and verb together, unless the subject is a quantity word such as 'most'.
Agreement errors hide behind phrases that put a noun of the other number next to the verb. In 'The quality of the answers were poor', the noun beside the verb is 'answers', but the subject is 'quality', so the verb must be 'was'. Phrases beginning with 'of', 'in', 'with', 'along with', 'together with' or 'as well as' do not change the subject: 'The principal, along with the teachers, is attending the meeting' is correct, because the subject is the principal. Cover the phrase, read what is left, 'The quality … were poor', and the error is plain. Relative clauses work the same way: in 'The book that the students borrowed is overdue', the verb 'is' agrees with 'book'. The exception is a word of quantity such as 'all', 'some', 'most', 'half' or 'the rest', which takes its number from the noun after 'of': 'Most of the answers were poor'.
3Which tense errors should you look for in error spotting?
In short: A present perfect with a finished past time, a continuous form of a verb such as 'know', and 'will' inside a clause of time or condition about the future.
Three tense errors recur. The present perfect cannot go with a finished time: 'I have met him yesterday' should be 'I met him yesterday', because yesterday is over. Verbs of state, such as 'know', 'belong', 'own' and 'understand', are not normally used in continuous forms, so 'I am knowing the answer' should be 'I know the answer'. And in a clause of time or condition about the future, after 'when', 'if', 'before', 'after' or 'as soon as', English uses the present tense: 'We will begin after the guests will arrive' should be 'after the guests arrive'. A when- or if-clause that is the object of a verb keeps 'will': 'I don't know when he will arrive' is correct.
4Which pronoun errors appear in error-spotting questions?
In short: Reflexives such as 'myself' used where an ordinary pronoun belongs, 'who' and 'which' swapped between people and things, and pronouns that do not match their nouns.
A reflexive pronoun such as 'myself' or 'himself' is used when the subject acts on itself ('I taught myself Python') or for emphasis ('I checked it myself'). It cannot replace an ordinary pronoun, so 'Please send the details to myself' should be 'to me', and introducing yourself with 'Myself Priya' should be 'I am Priya'. Relative pronouns follow what they refer to: 'who' and 'whom' for people, 'which' for things, and 'that' for either, so 'the laptop who was stolen' and 'the manager which approved it' are both errors. A pronoun must also match its noun in number: 'The students submitted his reports' should be 'their reports'.
5Which preposition errors appear in error-spotting questions?
In short: A preposition added after a verb that takes a direct object, one left out after a verb that needs it, and the wrong partner in a fixed pairing.
Three patterns recur. Some verbs take their object directly, so a preposition before the object is an error: 'emphasise', 'resemble', 'reach' (a place) and 'request', as in 'He emphasised on the deadline', which should be 'He emphasised the deadline'. Other verbs need a preposition that is often dropped: 'listen to', 'wait for', and 'explain something to someone', so 'Explain me the rule' becomes 'Explain the rule to me'. And many words have a fixed partner: 'married to', 'accuse someone of', 'prefer one thing to another', 'congratulate someone on a result'. Nouns can differ from their verbs: you put emphasis on a point, but you emphasise it. These pairings are learned, not worked out.
6How do you spot an adjective or adverb error?
In short: Ask what the word describes: a noun takes an adjective, while a verb, an adjective or another adverb takes an adverb.
Adjectives describe nouns, and adverbs describe verbs, adjectives and other adverbs, so 'She speaks English fluent' needs 'fluently', because the word describes how she speaks. After linking verbs such as 'be', 'seem', 'become', 'look' and 'feel', the word describes the subject, so an adjective is right: 'The plan looks good' and 'The room feels warm' are correct. 'Good' is an adjective and 'well' is its adverb, so 'She sings good' should be 'She sings well'. Comparatives are the other trap: a double comparative such as 'more better' or 'more easier' is always wrong, because 'better' and 'easier' already compare.
7What is a redundancy error, and how do you catch it?
In short: It is a word that repeats a meaning the sentence already carries, such as 'return back' or 'repeat again'; delete it and see whether anything is lost.
Some errors are not wrong forms but extra words. 'Return' already means go back, so 'return back' repeats itself, as do 'repeat again', 'revert back', 'combine together' and 'free gift'. Two words doing one grammatical job are another version: 'Although it rained, but the match continued' uses two linking words for one contrast and must keep only one: 'Although it rained, the match continued'. The test is simple: remove the suspect word and read the sentence again. If the meaning is unchanged and the grammar still works, the word was redundant, and its part of the sentence holds the error.
8When should you choose the no-error option?
In short: Choose it only after every part of the sentence has passed your checks; it is a genuine answer in some questions, but not a fallback when nothing stands out.
Many error-spotting sections offer a no-error option, and in some questions it is correct, so rejecting it on principle loses marks. The risk runs the other way too: a sentence that sounds fine on a first read often hides an agreement or preposition error that only a check reveals. Choose no error when you have checked each part in order (subject and verb, tense, pronouns, prepositions and articles, word forms and redundancy) and every part passes. If the test has negative marking and you suspect an error you cannot locate, whether to guess depends on the penalty and on how many parts you have ruled out.
How the diagnostic asks it
One question from the Verbal Ability bank, exactly as a sitting would show it. The bank has 4 on error spotting and 30 across Verbal Ability.
Which part of the sentence contains an error?
The project team met on Monday / to discuss about the delays / and agreed on a new schedule / for the remaining modules.
- 1The project team met on Monday
- 2to discuss about the delayscorrect
- 3and agreed on a new schedule
- 4for the remaining modules
'Discuss' is transitive and takes its object directly: 'to discuss the delays'. 'Discuss about' is a common error, often carried over from 'talk about'. 'Met on Monday' uses the normal preposition for days, 'agreed on a new schedule' is the standard pairing for reaching a decision, and 'for the remaining modules' correctly says what the schedule covers.
Measure it
Reading answers tells you what’s true. A diagnostic tells you what you get wrong.
10 Verbal Ability questions across its topics, easy to hard, about fifteen minutes. You get a readiness figure with the arithmetic shown, the topics you missed named, and a practice set sized for today. Free: a diagnostic in every subject, a retake a month and 15 problems a day. No card.