SSC CGL Preparation – Day 4

Spotting Errors

🔍 What is Spotting Errors?

“Spotting Errors” is a common and high-scoring section in SSC CGL. You’re given a sentence divided into parts (usually 3 or 4), and you’re asked to find the part that contains a grammatical or usage error.

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📌 Types of Errors Commonly Tested

1. Subject-Verb Agreement

• Singular subject → singular verb
• Plural subject → plural verb
  ✅ Example: She plays well. ✖️ She play well.

2. Tense Consistency

• Maintain uniformity in tenses unless contextually required. ✅ He said that he was coming.

3. Article Usage (a, an, the)

• ‘A’ before consonant sounds, ‘An’ before vowel sounds
  ✅ An honest man ✖️ A honest man

4. Preposition Errors

• Use of wrong or missing prepositions.
  ✅ He is good at math. ✖️ He is good in math.

5. Pronoun Errors

• Ambiguous or incorrect pronoun usage.
  ✅ Everyone must do his duty. ✖️ Everyone must do their duty.

6. Modifiers Misplaced

• Misplaced or dangling modifiers can distort meaning.
  ✅ Running to the bus, he slipped. ✖️ Running to the bus, the road was slippery.

7. Parallelism

• All parts of the sentence should follow the same structure.
  ✅ He likes reading, writing, and swimming.

8. Adjective vs Adverb Usage

✅ She sings beautifully. ✖️ She sings beautiful.

9. Redundancy

• Avoid repetition.
  ✅ He returned back. ✖️ ‘Returned’ already means back.

10. Wrong Word Usage / Vocabulary

✅ Effect (noun) vs Affect (verb)

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✅ Tips & Tricks

• Always read the complete sentence first.
• Break the sentence into segments.
• Use elimination method: if unsure, eliminate the most obviously correct ones first.
• Watch out for trick words (e.g., “each”, “every”, “neither”, which are singular).
• Re-read after correction to ensure it makes sense.

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🔠 Common SSC CGL Error Examples

1. Everyone of the students have submitted the homework.
   ✅ Error: “have” → “has”
   (Everyone is singular.)
2. He is senior than me.
   ✅ Error: “senior than” → “senior to”
   (Use to after senior/junior/superior/inferior.)
3. The principal and the teacher is present.
   ✅ Error: “is” → “are”
   (Compound subject: plural verb.)
4. She is more cleverer than her sister.
   ✅ Error: “more cleverer” → “cleverer”
   (Avoid double comparison.)
5. The teacher as well as the students were present.
   ✅ Error: “were” → “was”
   (The subject is singular: “teacher”.)

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📖 Practice Strategy

• Practice 10–15 questions daily.
• Create an error log of common mistakes you repeat.
• Revise grammar rules weekly.