Error Spotting Questions for IBPS RRB PO

Subject-Verb Agreement

The verb must match the subject in number (singular or plural). The biggest trap is when a phrase or clause separates the subject from the verb, making you forget what the actual subject is. Think of it as: ignore the middle, focus on the anchor (the real subject).

• Collective nouns like committee, jury, team take singular verb when acting as one unit.
• Either/Neither, Each, Every, Anyone, Nobody always take singular verb.
• Either...or / Neither...nor: verb agrees with the subject closest to it.
• Titles of books, movies, countries with plural-looking names take singular verb (e.g., The United States is...).
• Phrases like along with, as well as, together with do NOT make subject plural. Verb follows the first subject.
• None can take singular or plural verb depending on context, but in exams singular is mostly correct.

Tense Consistency and Sequence

A sentence should not randomly switch tenses unless there is a logical reason (like a flashback). In IBPS RRB PO, errors are planted by mixing Simple Past with Present Perfect incorrectly, or using Past Perfect where Simple Past is enough.

• Present Perfect (has/have + V3) is used for recent past with present effect. Do not use it with definite past time words like yesterday, last year, ago.
• Past Perfect (had + V3) is used for an action completed before another past action.
• Simple Past is used with specific time markers: yesterday, in 2010, last week.
• If the sentence uses 'since', the main clause verb should be in Present Perfect or Past Perfect.
• Reported speech shifts tenses back by one step (is becomes was, has becomes had).

Articles: A, An, The

Articles are small words but big error sources. Use 'a' before consonant sounds, 'an' before vowel sounds (based on pronunciation, not spelling). 'The' is used for specific or already-mentioned nouns.

• An honest man, an hour, an MBA (M sounds like Em — vowel sound) — go by sound, not spelling.
• Use 'the' before superlatives: the best, the tallest.
• Use 'the' with unique things: the sun, the moon, the government.
• No article before plural general nouns: Dogs are loyal (not The dogs are loyal — in a general sense).
• No article before names of languages, sports, meals in general: She likes cricket, He eats dinner at 8.
• Use 'the' before names of rivers, mountain ranges, oceans, newspapers: the Ganga, the Himalayas.

Pronoun Errors

The pronoun must agree with its antecedent (the noun it replaces) in number and gender. A very common error in IBPS papers is using 'their' for a singular subject, or using 'it' for a person.

• Everyone, someone, anyone, nobody take singular pronouns: Everyone must carry his or her ID.
• Do not mix subject and object pronouns: Between you and me (not I) is correct.
• Reflexive pronouns (myself, himself) cannot replace subject or object pronouns: He and I went (not me or myself).
• Who is used for persons; which is used for things; that can be used for both in defining clauses.
• Avoid ambiguous pronoun reference: if it is unclear who 'he' refers to, the sentence is an error.

Preposition Errors

Prepositions are tested through fixed phrases called collocations or prepositional phrases. You simply need to remember which preposition pairs with which word. There is no rule — only usage patterns.

• Comply with (not to), according to, deal in (business), deal with (a problem).
• Married to (not with), die of (disease), die in (accident), die from (injury).
• Interested in, good at, capable of, responsible for, afraid of.
• Differ from (things differ from each other), differ with (disagree with a person).
• Between is used for two items; among is used for more than two.

Parallelism and Comparison Errors

In a list or comparison, the grammatical form must be the same for all items. This is called parallelism. Comparison errors happen when two incomparable things are compared.

• She likes dancing, singing, and to paint — WRONG. Should be: dancing, singing, and painting.
• Correlative conjunctions must balance: not only...but also, either...or, both...and.
• Comparison must be between similar things: The salary of a teacher is more than a doctor — WRONG (salary vs doctor). Should be: more than that of a doctor.
• Use 'other' when comparing within same group: She is taller than any other girl (not any girl).
• Double comparatives are wrong: more better, most tallest — avoid.

• Choosing the wrong part because of the nearest word to the verb — always trace back to the real subject before judging agreement.
• Confusing sound and spelling for articles — an MBA is correct because M sounds like Em (vowel sound), not because M is a vowel.
• Using 'since' with a specific duration instead of 'for' — since is for a point in time, for is for a duration (since morning vs for two hours).
• Marking 'No error' too quickly when the error is in the last part of the sentence — IBPS frequently hides the error in the final segment.
• Ignoring parallelism errors in long sentences — the mismatch often appears far from the beginning and is easy to miss when reading fast.

• PASTA rule for Subject-Verb: Pronouns (each/every/either), Along-with phrases, Subjects joined by or/nor, Titles, and Actions (collective nouns as one unit) — all take Singular verb.
• SPA for Tenses: Specific time = Simple past, Present effect = Present perfect, Action before another past action = Past perfect.
• FARM for Prepositions: Fixed And Remembered Manually — there is no shortcut, make a personal list of 20 common prepositional phrases and revise daily.
• The Mirror Test for Parallelism: cover one item in the list and replace it with another — if the grammar breaks, there is a parallelism error.

• IBPS RRB PO Mains typically gives a sentence divided into 4-5 bold or underlined parts (A, B, C, D, E with E as No Error). Read the whole sentence first, then check each part individually.
• Subject-Verb Agreement and Tense errors are the most frequently tested categories — together they account for roughly 50 percent of all error spotting questions in recent papers.
• In Part A or B errors are less common — IBPS setters prefer to hide errors in Part C or D where readers have already built momentum and tend to overlook issues.
• Do not spend more than 45 seconds per question. If unsure between two options, go with the one involving Subject-Verb agreement — it is the highest frequency error type.
• For RRB PO specifically, sentences often use banking and rural economy vocabulary (microfinance, cooperative societies, kisan credit). Do not get distracted by the topic — focus only on grammar structure.