Spotting Errors Questions and Answers

Answer: A

The error is in part (a): Regretfully should be Regrettably.

Regretfully means 'with regret' and describes how a person feels or acts: 'She regretfully declined.' Regrettably means 'unfortunately' and comments on a whole situation. Profits cannot feel regret, so the sentence needs: 'Regrettably, profits earned by your company fell by 20 per cent last year despite higher sales.'

Parts (b) and (c) are correct: 'fell by 20 per cent' and 'despite higher sales' are idiomatic.

Answer: B

The error is in the part Already was beginning.

The adverb already goes between the auxiliary and the main verb, not before the auxiliary: was already beginning. Since the lecture had started before he entered, the past perfect is better still: When he entered the classroom, the lecture had already begun.

The other parts are correct. When he entered and the classroom the lecture (the end of one clause and the subject of the next) need no change, so 'No error' does not apply.

Answer: D

The error is in on her.

We are angry with a person and angry at or about a thing. The correct sentence is 'Sometimes I get angry with her.'

'Sometimes' and 'I get angry' are correct, so the error lies only in the preposition, and 'No error' is wrong.

Answer: C

The error is in loose it.

The verb meaning to be unable to find something, or to stop having it, is lose. Loose is an adjective meaning not tight, or a verb meaning to set free. The sentence should read 'I don't want to lose it.'

'I don't' and 'want to' are correct, so the error is not there, and 'No error' is wrong.

Answer: C

The keyed error is in part (C), love each other; by the rule the paper follows it should read love one another.

Traditional grammar books teach that each other is used of two persons and one another of more than two. The Bible's teaching here concerns all people, not a pair, so by that rule the sentence should say that we should love one another.

Parts (A) and (B) are correct: preaches agrees with the singular subject The Bible, and that we should correctly introduces the reported teaching. Modern usage often treats the two reciprocal pronouns as interchangeable, but the examiners apply the classroom rule, so the answer is not 'No error'.

Answer: B

The error is in part (B), that why he was. The sentence should read I asked him why he was beating about the bush.

In reported speech, a question that begins with a question word (why, what, where, how) is reported with that word itself as the connecting word. That is used to report statements, never questions, so that why puts two connectives together. The direct question was Why are you beating about the bush?

Part (A), I asked him, is correct, and part (C) is correct too: beating about the bush is the standard idiom for avoiding the main point. So 'No error' is wrong.

Answer: B

The error is in part (B), are very useful; it should be is very useful.

The subject of the sentence is Each, not books. In the pattern each of + plural noun, the verb agrees with each, which is singular, so the correct sentence is Each of these books is very useful to college students. The plural noun inside the of phrase does not change this.

Part (A) is correctly formed, since each of is followed by a plural noun with a determiner (these books). Part (C), to college students, uses the right preposition after useful. So the only error is the verb.

Answer: A

The error is in part (A), I do not see a fun; it should be I do not see any fun.

Fun is an uncountable noun, like advice and information, so it cannot take the indefinite article a. With a negative verb the usual determiner is any: I do not see any fun in practical joking, or simply I see no fun in practical joking.

Part (B), in, is the correct preposition (see fun in something), and part (C), practical joking, is a correct gerund phrase. So neither of them is the error, and 'No error' is wrong.

Answer: D

The keyed answer is No error. The intended sentence is It is too long a journey to make in one day.

The pattern too + adjective + a + noun is correct English: the adjective moves in front of the article after too, so, as and how (too long a journey, so good a man, as fine a day). It is followed by a to-infinitive showing the result, to make in one day.

The paper prints jouney, a printing slip for journey; the item tests grammar, and the grammar of all three parts is sound. Writing a too long journey would be the error the item is checking for.

Answer: D

The sentence is correct, so the answer is No error.

When two nouns joined by and name a single idea or a single dish, the subject is treated as singular: bread and butter (buttered bread), rice and curry, the horse and carriage. So Bread and butter is a wholesome food is right, and the article a before wholesome food agrees with it.

Marking is a as the error assumes that any two nouns joined by and need are, which is the rule this question is built to test the exception to. The other sections contain nothing wrong.