Error Spotting & Sentence Correction — IBPS PO English

Unlike reading comprehension, error spotting is completely finite — there is no "passage" to interpret, only a fixed set of grammar rules IBPS tests again and again. A sentence is split into parts (or given with an underlined phrase), and you find the grammatically wrong one — or pick the correction. At 3–5 marks across Prelims and Mains, this is the most learnable English topic: master roughly a dozen rules and the trap patterns that disguise them, and you rarely miss one. This chapter is those rules and traps.

1. What IBPS actually asks

• Error spotting: a sentence in 3–4 parts; mark the part with the error (or "No error").
• Sentence correction / improvement: an underlined phrase with options to replace it (see also the Sentence Improvement chapter).
• New-pattern: "which parts are grammatically correct", or spotting the error across two sentences.

All test the same grammar core — learn it once.

2. Subject–verb agreement (the most-tested rule)

The verb must agree with the real subject in number — and IBPS hides the subject:

• Intervening phrase: "The list of candidates is (not are) long." The subject is list, not candidates.
• Either…or / neither…nor: the verb agrees with the nearer subject. "Neither the manager nor the clerks were present."
• Collective nouns (team, committee, government) usually take a singular verb.
• "Each / every / everyone / one of" → singular. "Each of the officers has a target."
• "A number of" = plural; "the number of" = singular.

First find the true subject (ignore the phrase between it and the verb), then match number. This single check catches the most errors.

3. Tense & sequence

• Reported/past context: a past main verb usually needs a past sub-clause. "He said that he was (not is) busy."
• Since / for + present perfect: "She has worked here since 2019."
• Two past actions: the earlier one takes past perfect. "The train had left before we reached."
• "If" conditionals: "If I were you…"; "If it rains, we will cancel" (present + will), not "will rain".

4. Prepositions, articles & pronouns

• Preposition collocations are fixed: married to, comply with, composed of, superior to, capable of, depends on, different from. IBPS loves swapping these.
• Articles: "a" before consonant sounds ("a university", "an hour"); "the" for specific/unique things; no article before uncountable/plural generalities ("Honesty is…").
• Pronoun agreement & case: the pronoun matches its noun in number ("Everyone must bring his/their ID"), and use subject vs object form correctly ("between you and me", not I).

5. Parallelism, modifiers & the rest

• Parallelism: items in a list/comparison must share form. "She likes reading, writing and to paint" ✗ → "…and painting." Correlatives too: "not only X but also Y" must be structurally matched.
• Misplaced/dangling modifiers: the modifier must sit next to what it describes. "Running to the station, the train left" ✗ (the train wasn't running).
• Comparisons: "more better" ✗; "the tallest of the two" ✗ (use taller); compare like with like ("her salary is higher than his", not "than him").
• Redundancy: "return back", "repeat again", "reason is because" — all wrong.
• Countable/uncountable: "less" for uncountable, "fewer" for countable ("fewer errors", "less time").

6. The trap patterns (how errors hide)

IBPS disguises a simple rule so you skim past it:

• A long phrase between subject and verb (hides agreement).
• A familiar-sounding wrong preposition ("discuss about" ✗ — discuss takes no preposition).
• A correct-looking parallel list with one odd member.
• "No error" as a genuine option — don't invent an error; ~15–20% of these have none.

Read the sentence once at normal speed for sound, then check each part against a rule — don't just trust your ear on the tricky ones.

8. The protocol

1. Read the whole sentence once for sense — errors are often about meaning/agreement, not a single word.
2. Find the subject and its verb; check number agreement (ignore the phrase between).
3. Check tense sequence, then prepositions/articles/pronouns, then parallelism/modifiers/comparison.
4. Watch the trap patterns; a long intervening phrase almost always signals an agreement test.
5. Trust "No error" when every part survives the rule checks — don't manufacture a mistake.