Words, phrases and sentences are the roots of any language. An error in their use leaves an expression with no meaning. It would be difficult to understand such sentences. Hence, knowing the roots of the language is crucial to understand the written text and their expression perfectly.
Generally in competitive exams these types of questions have sentences divided into four parts marked as (a) (b) (c) and (d), also the fifth option (e), refers to ‘No error’. The candidates are required to find out the part of the sentence containing the error.
The errors may be relating to the usage of- article, preposition, tense of the sentence, verb, noun, pronoun, adverb, adjective, conjunction, subject-verb agreement and so on. Sometimes the error may also include unwanted use of some words.
We must understand and bear in mind that there is no ‘shortcut’ to answering these questions. We must have a good command over rules of grammar and their application. Study the rules well and then practice these questions. The more you practice the more confidence you get. Do practice the exercises again and again to see a significant improvement in your score.
So some let us study the rules to solve ‘Spotting the error’ questions and also practice them in the links provided….
Rule 1: Adverbs of time are generally placed before the verb they modify.
List of Adverbs of time: Always, Recently, Often, Usually, Already, Seldom, Just, Hardly, Never, Rarely, Ever, Normally, Sometimes, Frequent, Generally.
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Rule 2: Adverbs of manner are placed only after the intransitive verb. However, adverbs can be placed before or after the transitive verb..
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Rule 3: If the introductory subject of a sentence is adverb then the verb is used in the inverted form to show the emphasis lying there upon.
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Rule 4: ‘Else’ should be followed by ‘but’ while ‘other’ and ‘otherwise’ is followed by ‘than’.
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Rule 5: Both ‘Never’ and ‘not’ are adverbs. Use of ‘never’ in place of ‘not’ is incorrect..
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Rule 6: Adverbial phrases are used in this way, Seldom or never, seldom if ever, little or nothing, little of anything..
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Rule 7: Double negatives are avoided in a sentence. Here are the negative adverbs.
Seldom, Nowhere, Never, Nothing, Hardly, Scarcely, Neither, Barely, Rarely.
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Rule 8: The following words are adjectives and should not be used as adverbs.
Manly, Masterly, Slovenly, Monthly, Weekly, Friendly, Orderly, Gentlemanly, Sickly..
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Rule 9: See the below table to note the distinction between adjective and adverb..
| Adjective | Adverb |
|---|---|
| Cowardly | Cowardly manner |
| Miserly | Miserly manner |
| Niggardly | Niggardly manner |
Example:
Rule 10: The following words can be used both as adjective and as an adverb.
Fast, Safe, High, Quiet, Straight, Outright, Direct, Hard, Hardly, Light, Late.
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Rule 11: ‘Loud’ is adjective while, ‘Loudly’ and ‘Aloud’ are adverbs..
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Rule 12: ‘Late’ can be used as both adjective and adverb while ‘Lately’ can be used as an adverb only in the sense of ‘recently’.
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Rule 13: ‘Hard’ can be used as both adjective and adverb while ‘Hardly’ can be used as an adverb in the negative sense..
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Rule 14: ‘Very’ is used to modify present participle, adverb and adjective in the positive degree.
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Rule 15: ‘Much’ is used with comparative degree and past participle.
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Rule 10: The following words can be used both as adjective and as an adverb.
Fast, Safe, High, Quiet, Straight, Outright, Direct, Hard, Hardly, Light, Late.
Example:
Rule 11: ‘Loud’ is adjective while, ‘Loudly’ and ‘Aloud’ are adverbs..
Example:
Rule 12: ‘Late’ can be used as both adjective and adverb while ‘Lately’ can be used as an adverb only in the sense of ‘recently’.
Example:
Rule 13: ‘Hard’ can be used as both adjective and adverb while ‘Hardly’ can be used as an adverb in the negative sense..
Example:
Rule 14: ‘Very’ is used to modify present participle, adverb and adjective in the positive degree.
Example:
Rule 15: ‘Much’ is used with comparative degree and past participle.
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Rule 16: ‘So’ is used with ‘that’ and ‘too’ is used with ‘to’ ‘very’ and “much” may be used in the place of ‘so’ and ‘too’..
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Rule 17: ‘Enough’ is both an adjective and an adverb. As an adjective it is placed before a noun and as an adverb it is placed after the adjective.
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Rule 18: ‘Rather’ is an adverb of degree like fairly, quit, pretty (to some extent) .
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Rule 19: ‘Too’, ‘As well’ and ‘Also’ are used in the sense of ‘besides’ or ‘in addition to’ in the affirmative sentence. ‘Too’ and ‘As well’ can be used in the end position but ‘also’ can’t be used in the end position.
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Rule 20: If two persons are doing one action then [so + helping verb + subject] is used in the affirmative sentence.
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Rule 21: If neither of the two persons are doing an action then [neither/nor + helping verb + subject] is used in negative sentence.
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Rule 22: ‘As’ should be used to introduce predicative of the verbs in the case of following verbs.
Regard, Describe, Define, Treat, View, Know.
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Rule 23: ‘As’ should be avoided to introduce predicative of the verbs in the case of followings.
Name, Elect, Think, Consider, Call, Appoint, Make, Choose.
Example:
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