SSC CGL Preparation – Day 15

English: Sentence Correction

🔍 What is Sentence Correction?

Sentence Correction involves identifying and correcting grammatical, structural, or usage errors in a sentence. In SSC CGL, this is a key component of the English section.

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🎯 Objective in SSC CGL

You are asked to find the part of a sentence that contains an error and correct it OR choose the best version of a sentence that is grammatically and contextually correct.

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🧠 Key Areas Tested in Sentence Correction

1. Subject-Verb Agreement
2. Tense Consistency
3. Modifiers and Word Order
4. Articles and Determiners
5. Prepositions
6. Conjunctions
7. Pronoun Usage
8. Parallelism
9. Redundancy
10. Conditional Sentences
11. Idiomatic Expressions
12. Active/Passive Voice Usage
13. Direct/Indirect Speech Usage

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🧩 Examples of Errors & Corrections

1️⃣ Subject-Verb Agreement

❌ The boy go to school every day.
✅ The boy goes to school every day.

2️⃣ Tense Errors

❌ She was cooking when he comes.
✅ She was cooking when he came.

3️⃣ Misplaced Modifier

❌ Covered in chocolate, she ate the ice cream.
✅ She ate the ice cream covered in chocolate.

4️⃣ Article Usage

❌ He is honest man.
✅ He is an honest man.

5️⃣ Preposition Error

❌ He is married with her.
✅ He is married to her.

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✅ Common Sentence Correction Tricks for SSC CGL

Grammar Rule	Tip
✅ Singular/Plural Nouns	Match the subject and verb number.
✅ Verb Forms	Ensure proper tense usage based on context.
✅ Modifiers	Keep modifiers close to the word they modify.
✅ Comparisons	Always compare similar things (e.g., apples to apples).
✅ Idioms	Learn commonly tested phrases (e.g., “prefer X to Y”).
✅ Double Negatives	Avoid using two negatives (e.g., not nothing = ❌).
✅ Redundancy	Don’t repeat the same idea unnecessarily.

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✍️ Practice Strategy

1. Read the full sentence once.
2. Identify any part that sounds odd or incorrect.
3. Check grammar rules: tense, subject-verb agreement, modifiers, etc.
4. Replace the error with a grammatically correct structure.
5. Reread the entire sentence after correction.

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📚 Top 10 Sentence Correction Traps in SSC CGL

Error Type	Example (❌)	Corrected (✅)
Subject-Verb	The dogs barks.	The dogs bark.
Tense Shift	I see him yesterday.	I saw him yesterday.
Modifier	Running fast, the gate was missed.	Running fast, he missed the gate.
Pronoun	Everyone should bring their book.	Everyone should bring his or her book.
Article	She is a honest girl.	She is an honest girl.
Preposition	Discuss about the issue.	Discuss the issue.
Word Order	He only eats rice.	He eats only rice.
Redundancy	Return back the book.	Return the book.
Comparison	She is better than any girl.	She is better than any other girl.
Parallelism	She likes singing, dancing and to cook.	She likes singing, dancing and cooking.

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📝 Sentence Correction – SSC CGL Style MCQ Format

🔹 You’ll typically see:

• A sentence with 4 underlined parts (A, B, C, D).
• You choose the part that contains the error (or choose E – No Error).
  OR
• 4 rephrased versions of the sentence, and you choose the best one.

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📌 Example Question (SSC CGL Pattern)

👉 Question:
Each of the following sentences has four underlined parts. Find the part that has an error:

The man (A) along with his children (B) were playing (C) in the park (D)

✅ Answer: (C)
Explanation:
The subject is “The man” (singular), so the verb should be was, not were.

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📈 Tips for Mastery

• Practice 10–15 sentence correction questions daily.
• Revise grammar rules from NCERT or Wren & Martin.
• Maintain a personal error log.
• Focus more on tense, subject-verb, and modifiers – most SSC CGL errors come from these areas.

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🔚 Summary Checklist for Sentence Correction:

✅ Grammar rules applied correctly
✅ Subject and verb agree
✅ Verb tense consistent
✅ Pronouns used properly
✅ Modifiers placed correctly
✅ Parallelism maintained
✅ Idiomatic usage accurate
✅ Sentence makes logical sense