Error Detection Questions for AFCAT

Subject-Verb Agreement

The verb in a sentence must match its subject in number and person. This is the single most tested error type in AFCAT. The trap is usually a long phrase between the subject and verb that distracts you from the real subject. Always locate the main subject first, then check the verb against it — ignore everything in between.

• Singular subjects take singular verbs: The list of items is ready (not are).
• Collective nouns like team, jury, committee usually take singular verbs in Indian English usage.
• Either/Neither/Each/Every/Anyone takes a singular verb.
• When two subjects are joined by or/nor, the verb agrees with the subject closer to it.
• Expressions like along with, as well as, together with do NOT change the subject — ignore them and match verb to the original subject.

Tense Errors

AFCAT sentences often mix tenses incorrectly. The key rule is tense consistency — unless there is a logical time shift, one sentence should stick to one tense frame. Pay attention to time signal words: yesterday, since, for, already, just, by the time, etc. These words almost always demand a specific tense.

• Since/For + duration demands Present Perfect or Past Perfect, not Simple Past.
• By the time + past event demands Past Perfect (had + V3).
• Conditional: If + Simple Present, then Future (will). Do not mix tenses in conditionals.
• Reported speech shifts tenses back: say becomes said, will becomes would.
• Words like when, as soon as, before, after in future reference use Simple Present, not Future tense.

Article Errors (A, An, The)

Articles are deceptively simple but AFCAT regularly tests them. Use A before consonant sounds, An before vowel sounds — the rule is about SOUND not spelling. The is used for specific, already-mentioned, or unique nouns. Common trap: honorary, honest, heir take An because they start with a silent H (vowel sound). MBA, MLA, NGO take An because M, N are pronounced Em, En.

• An honest man, an heir, an hour — silent H makes it a vowel sound.
• A university, a unique, a European — these start with a Y sound, so use A.
• The Sun, The Moon, The Earth — unique objects always take The.
• Do not use The before proper nouns like country names (except The USA, The Netherlands — memorise these exceptions).
• No article before meals, games, languages, and subjects in general: She plays chess, He studies Hindi.

Preposition Errors

Wrong prepositions are a favourite AFCAT trap. These must largely be memorised as fixed phrases (collocations). The good news is the same 10 to 15 phrases appear repeatedly. Think of prepositions as glue words — the right glue is fixed for each phrase, you cannot swap them.

• Married to (not with): She is married to an officer.
• Die of a disease, die in an accident, die for a cause.
• Differ from (things), differ with (people on opinions).
• Comply with, abide by, adhere to — all mean to follow rules.
• Blind in one eye, deaf in one ear — use in for sense organs.
• Aim at a target, aim to achieve a goal.

Pronoun Errors

A pronoun must clearly refer to one noun (its antecedent) and must match it in number and gender. AFCAT tests ambiguous pronoun reference and wrong case usage. Case means whether to use I or me, who or whom, he or him in a given position in the sentence.

• Subject position: I, he, she, they, who. Object position: me, him, her, them, whom.
• Between you and me is correct — not between you and I (between is a preposition, needs object case).
• Each, everyone, someone take singular pronouns: Everyone should carry his or her ID.
• Reflexive pronouns (myself, himself) are used only when subject and object are the same person — do not use myself as a fancy substitute for me.
• Avoid ambiguous reference: He told his brother that he had failed — who failed? Rewrite or flag as error.

Miscellaneous Grammar Errors

These are leftover but frequent error types that AFCAT uses to catch aspirants who only prepare the big four. Keep a quick checklist in your head for double comparatives, redundancy, and conjunctions.

• Double comparative is wrong: more better, more easier — drop more.
• Redundancy: return back, repeat again, consensus of opinion — one word is enough.
• Wrong conjunction pairing: Neither goes with nor, Either goes with or, Not only goes with but also.
• Fewer vs Less: fewer for countable nouns (fewer soldiers), less for uncountable (less water).
• Dangling modifier: Running down the road, my hat flew off — hat is not running, this is an error.

• Reading the sentence too fast and trusting your ear alone — many errors sound correct when spoken in casual Indian English. Always check grammatically, not phonetically.
• Forgetting that phrases like along with, in addition to, accompanied by do NOT make a singular subject plural. Aspirants change the verb and lose the mark.
• Confusing sound-based article rule: writing A honest instead of An honest because H looks like a consonant — always go by pronunciation.
• Marking No Error too quickly. AFCAT setters often make the error subtle and place it in the last part. Always read all four parts before deciding.
• Confusing fewer and less, or amount and number — using less with countable nouns (less students instead of fewer students) is a classic trap that appears in AFCAT papers.

• STAAP checklist for error detection: Subject-verb, Tense, Article, preposition (A for preposition), Pronoun — run through STAAP mentally on every sentence.
• For Neither/Either/Each/Every remember the mnemonic NEEE takes Singular — all four take singular verbs and singular pronouns.
• For articles remember the phrase An HOUR in an HONEST MBA — covers silent H and abbreviation exceptions in one image.
• For conjunction pairs, remember the trio as couples: Neither-Nor are married, Either-Or are engaged, Not only-But also are partners. Never mix them up.

• AFCAT typically presents 4 to 5 error detection questions in the format where the sentence is split into parts A, B, C, D and option E is No Error. Train yourself to eliminate parts that are clearly correct before deciding.
• The error is most commonly placed in Part B or Part C based on PYQ analysis — but always read all parts. Do not skip Part D thinking it is always correct.
• If you are stuck between two options, check subject-verb agreement first — it resolves the ambiguity in over 40 percent of cases.
• Spend no more than 45 seconds per question. If unsure, mark the most likely answer and move on — negative marking is minus 1 for wrong answers in AFCAT, so random guessing between 3 options is risky.
• Preposition collocations and article rules are easy to score if revised as a fixed list 2 to 3 days before the exam. Make a one-page cheat sheet of the 15 most common preposition phrases.