Identifying errors

NUST NET English · English · Grammar and usage. The idea in plain words, the rules to remember, the mistake to avoid and a worked example, written and checked by Mega Lecture.

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The idea

Four parts of a sentence are underlined and one of them is wrong. You do not have to correct it, only find it. The same few errors are tested again and again, so check the underlined parts against a fixed list instead of waiting for something to sound wrong.

For an underlined verb, find its subject and ask two things: singular or plural, and which time? For an underlined pronoun, ask which noun it stands for and whether it is doing the action or receiving it.

Then look at the shape of the sentence. Items in a list should have the same form (parallel structure), comparisons should compare like with like, and certain words take a fixed preposition.

Rules to remember

The verb agrees with its real subject. Ignore phrases in between ('of …', 'together with …', 'as well as …'). 'The number of … is'; 'a number of … are'.
After 'There is / are' and in inverted sentences, the subject comes after the verb: 'There are many reasons'.
Tense follows the time words ('last year' needs the past). Past unreal condition: If + had + past participle, … would have + past participle.
Pronoun case: I, he, she, we, they, who for subjects; me, him, her, us, them, whom for objects and after prepositions ('between you and me'). A pronoun also matches its noun in number.
Parallel structure: items in a list, and both halves of 'not only … but also', 'both … and', 'either … or', take the same grammatical form.
Comparison: comparative (-er / more) for two things, superlative (-est / most) for three or more; compare like with like ('than that of Lahore', 'than any other city').
Fixed idioms: prefer X to Y; superior / inferior / senior / junior to; different from. Adverbs, not adjectives, describe verbs ('runs quietly').

Common mistake

Students make the verb agree with the nearest noun instead of the subject, as in 'The list of items are long'. Cross out the phrase between the subject and the verb, then check: 'The list … is long'.

Worked example

Which underlined part of the sentence contains an error?
The quality of the samples collected from the three sites were much better than we had expected.
A. collected
B. were
C. much better
D. than

Check the underlined verb first: 'were'. Ask what was much better.
The subject is 'The quality', which is singular. 'of the samples collected from the three sites' only describes it.
A singular subject needs 'was', so 'were' is wrong; it has been attracted by the plural nouns 'samples' and 'sites'.
The rest is sound: 'collected' correctly describes the samples and 'much better than' is a correct comparative.

Answer: B. were (it should be 'was')

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