Error Spotting Exercises: Practice Questions and Tips to Solve

Error-spotting exercises are super helpful for anyone preparing for competitive exams like SSC, Bank, UPSC, or even for people who just want to improve their English. These questions might look tricky at first, but once you understand the grammar rules behind them, they become really easy to solve. Error spotting involves finding small grammar mistakes that can change the meaning of a sentence. 

In this blog, we’ll explain what error spotting exercises are, share easy examples, and give you tips to solve them faster. 

What is Error Spotting?

In simple words, error spotting is all about identifying the part of the sentence that contains a grammatical or usage mistake. You’ll usually see a sentence broken into 3–5 parts, and you have to figure out which part has the error.

Example:

He don’t / like going to / the gym / in the evening.

Error: ‘He don’t’- It should be ‘He doesn’t’.

Also Read: Editing Exercises for Class 6,7,8,9, 10, & 11 with Answers

Error Spotting Exercises 

In this section, we have two error spotting exercises to help you identify English grammar mistakes and rectify them.

Exercise 1: Identify the Error in Sentences

In each of the following sentences, a part of the sentence is incorrect. Identify the part that contains the error.

1. She do not know the answer to the question.
   Answer: She does not know the answer to the question.
   Explanation: ‘She’ is singular, so the correct auxiliary verb is ‘does’.

2. Everyone have finished their work on time.
   Answer:  Everyone has finished their work on time.
   Explanation: ‘Everyone’ is a singular indefinite pronoun, so it takes ‘has’.

3. He is senior than me in this company.
   Answer: He is senior to me in this company.
   Explanation: Certain comparative adjectives (senior, junior, superior, etc.) are followed by ‘to’, not ‘than’.

4. The news are very depressing these days.
   Answer: The news is very depressing these days.
   Explanation: ‘News’ is uncountable and treated as singular.

5. Each of the students have submitted their assignments.
   Answer: Each of the students has submitted his or her assignment.
   Explanation: ‘Each’ is singular, so use ‘has’. ‘Each’ should be followed by a singular possessive pronoun (his/her).

6. I am working here since 2010.
   Answer:  I have been working here since 2010.
   Explanation: Use the present perfect continuous tense with ‘since’.

7. She has went to the market.
   Answer: She has gone to the market.
   Explanation: ‘Gone’ is the past participle of ‘go’, used with ‘has’.

8. He told that he will come tomorrow.
   Answer:  He said that he would come tomorrow.
   Explanation: In indirect speech, ‘will’ changes to ‘would’.

9. The train leave at 6 PM every day.
   Answer: The train leaves at 6 PM every day.
   Explanation: Subject-verb agreement: singular subject (‘train’) needs singular verb (‘leaves’).

10. They was playing cricket when it started to rain.
    Answer: They were playing cricket when it started to rain.
    Explanation: ‘They’ is plural, so use ‘were’.

Exercise 2 – Correct the Errors in Paragraph

Read the passage below, identify the errors, and correct them.

Last weekend, me and my cousin decided to go for a hiking trip. We choose a small hill nearby our town. Before we starts, we packed water, snacks and some extra clothes. It were a sunny day and we was excited. While we climb, we saw many beautiful birds and flowers. After walking for one hour, we feel tired so we sit under a tree. My cousin were telling stories and we laughs a lot. Suddenly, it begin to rain. We had forget to bring raincoats, so we get all wet. Finally, we return back home in the evening, feeling happy but exhausted. It was a fun day and we hopes to do it again soon.

Answers: 

Last weekend, my cousin and I decided to go on a hiking trip. We chose a small hill near our town. Before we started, we packed water, snacks and some extra clothes. It was a sunny day and we were excited. While we climbed, we saw many beautiful birds and flowers. After walking for one hour, we felt tired so we sat under a tree. My cousin was telling stories and we laughed a lot. Suddenly, it began to rain. We had forgotten to bring raincoats, so we got all wet. Finally, we returned home in the evening, feeling happy but exhausted. It was a fun day and we hope to do it again soon.

Also Read: Sentence Correction Questions and Rules 

Error Spotting Exercises: Download Free PDF

Here, you can download free PDF for error spotting exercises:

Tips to Solve Error Spotting Questions

These questions test your grammar and vocabulary. You are given a sentence with a mistake, and you have to find the part of the sentence that has the error. Here are some tips to solve these error spotting problems:

1. Slow down and read the whole sentence first. Try to understand its meaning—this helps you spot anything that ‘sounds wrong’.

2. Check for Common Grammar Errors- Here are some areas where errors usually hide:

• Subject-Verb Agreement
  Example: She go to school every day.
  Correction: She goes to school every day.
  
• Tense Consistency
  Example: He is eating when I called him.
  Correction: He was eating when I called him.
  
• Prepositions
  Example: He is good in English.
  Correction: He is good at English.
  
• Articles (a, an, the)
  Example: He is a honest man.
  Correction: He is an honest man.
  
• Modifiers and Word Order
  Example: She only eats fruits on Sunday.
  Correction: She eats only fruits on Sunday.
  

3. Try solving 5 to 10 questions daily. Practice helps you develop an eye for errors quickly.

4. If the sentence is divided into 4 parts (A, B, C, D), look at each part one by one. Then analyse ‘Does this part sound grammatically correct?’ If something sounds awkward or wrong, check it closely. Sometimes your instincts will guide you better than Grammar rules.

5. Brush up on basic Grammar rules at regular intervals.

FAQs 

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