12 Grammar Rules Behind CSE Error Recognition Questions

Error recognition is part of the official Verbal Ability scope of the Civil Service Exam. A typical item divides a sentence into parts labelled A, B, C and D and asks which part contains an error. The errors are not random: a small set of grammar rules accounts for most of them. Learn these twelve rules and you will spot most errors quickly.

1. Subject–verb agreement

A singular subject takes a singular verb; a plural subject takes a plural verb.

• ✘ Each of the applicants have submitted the form.
• ✔ Each of the applicants has submitted the form.

The subject is “each”, not “applicants”. Words like each, every, either, neither, everyone and nobody are singular.

2. Phrases between the subject and verb

Phrases such as together with, as well as, along with and in addition to do not change the subject.

• ✘ The director, together with his staff, are attending.
• ✔ The director, together with his staff, is attending.

3. “Neither … nor” and “either … or”

The verb agrees with the subject nearer to it.

• ✔ Neither the manager nor his assistants were present.
• ✔ Neither the assistants nor the manager was present.

4. “The number of” versus “a number of”

• The number of applicants has increased. (singular: “the number”)
• A number of applicants have complained. (plural: “a number of” means “many”)

5. Uncountable nouns

Words such as information, advice, equipment, furniture, evidence and luggage have no plural and take singular verbs.

• ✘ The informations you requested are attached.
• ✔ The information you requested is attached.

6. Tense consistency and time markers

Time words fix the tense.

• ✘ Yesterday, the committee discuss the budget.
• ✔ Yesterday, the committee discussed the budget.

Use since with a point in time and for with a period of time.

• ✘ She has worked here since five years.
• ✔ She has worked here for five years. / …since 2021.

7. The subjunctive “were”

For imaginary or unreal conditions, use were for every subject.

• ✘ If I was the mayor, I would build more libraries.
• ✔ If I were the mayor, I would build more libraries.

8. Pronoun case after prepositions

Prepositions take object pronouns (me, him, her, us, them).

• ✘ Between you and I, the plan will work.
• ✔ Between you and me, the plan will work.

9. Comparatives and superlatives

Use the comparative (-er or more) for two, and the superlative (-est or most) for three or more. Never combine both forms.

• ✘ He is the more intelligent of the three candidates. → ✔ the most intelligent
• ✘ She is more taller than her sister. → ✔ She is taller than her sister.

10. Redundancy

Avoid saying the same thing twice.

• ✘ Please reply at your earliest convenience the soonest.
• ✘ The reason he was absent is because he was sick. → ✔ …is that he was sick.
• ✘ Return back, repeat again, in my own personal opinion

11. Commonly confused words

Many “errors” are wrong word choices:

Word	Meaning
affect (verb) / effect (noun)	to influence / a result
principal / principle	head of a school, main / a rule or belief
stationary / stationery	not moving / writing materials
complement / compliment	to complete / praise
precede / proceed	to come before / to continue

12. Parallel structure

Items in a list or comparison should have the same grammatical form.

• ✘ She likes reading, to write and swimming.
• ✔ She likes reading, writing and swimming.

A method for error recognition items

1. Read the whole sentence first to understand its meaning.
2. Find the subject and main verb, and check agreement (rules 1–5).
3. Check the tense against any time words (rule 6).
4. Check pronouns, prepositions and comparisons (rules 8–9).
5. Look for extra or confused words (rules 10–11).
6. If nothing is wrong in the underlined parts and the test offers a “no error” option, choose it, but only after checking all the above.

Practise

Work through our error recognition and sentence structure set and the newer sentence structure and paragraph organization set. Every explanation names the rule involved, so when you miss one, you will know which rule above to review.