Spotting Errors Questions for NDA

Subject-Verb Agreement

The verb must match the subject in number and person. The most common trick in NDA is placing a phrase between the subject and verb to confuse you. Always identify the real subject, ignore the middle phrase, then check if the verb agrees. Collective nouns like army, team, jury take singular verbs when acting as one unit.

• Ignore phrases like 'along with', 'as well as', 'together with' — the verb follows the first subject only
• Either/Neither with two subjects: verb agrees with the subject closer to it (proximity rule)
• Each, every, everyone, nobody, anyone always take a singular verb
• Collective nouns (committee, jury) take singular verb unless members act individually
• Mathematics, news, physics — these look plural but take singular verbs
• A number of = plural verb; The number of = singular verb

Tense Errors

NDA questions frequently test whether tenses are consistent within a sentence. A past action must stay in past tense throughout unless there is a logical shift. Watch out for sentences mixing present perfect with simple past incorrectly. Universal truths and habitual facts always use simple present even inside a past-tense sentence.

• Universal truths use present tense even after past reporting verb: He said that the sun rises in the east
• Since takes present perfect: I have lived here since 2010 — not simple past
• Two past actions: the earlier one takes past perfect (had + V3), the later one takes simple past
• Would is used for past habit, not 'used to' interchangeably in all cases
• If clause with past perfect in condition takes 'would have' in result clause — not 'would'

Articles — A, An, The

Article errors are very popular in NDA. The rule for 'a' vs 'an' is based on sound, not spelling. Words starting with a vowel sound take 'an'. Definite article 'the' is used before unique things, superlatives, and when the noun is already known to the reader. Many candidates miss that some nouns take no article at all.

• An is used before vowel sound: an honest man (h is silent), an MBA student (M sounds like em)
• A is used before consonant sound: a university (sounds like yoo), a European country
• The is used before unique nouns: the sun, the moon, the President of India
• No article before languages, sports, meals, proper nouns: He plays cricket, She knows French
• The with superlatives: He is the best student — never 'a best'

Pronoun Errors

Pronoun errors involve using the wrong case (subject vs object), wrong number, or unclear reference. NDA tests whether the pronoun matches its antecedent and whether the correct form is used after prepositions and in comparisons.

• After prepositions always use object form: between you and me — never 'I'
• In comparisons, the correct form depends on what is omitted: She is taller than I (am) — not me if subject
• Reflexive pronouns (myself, himself) are used only when subject and object are the same person
• Pronoun must agree with antecedent in number: Everyone should do his duty — not their
• It, they, them must have a clearly identified noun they refer to — vague references are errors

Preposition Errors

Using the wrong preposition with a verb, adjective, or noun is a very common NDA trap. These are mostly idiomatic — they must be memorized. The good news is the same 15 to 20 pairs repeat across years.

• Differ from (things), differ with (person): Opinions differ from each other
• Agree with (person), agree to (proposal), agree on (point)
• Angry with (person), angry at (situation or thing)
• Married to — never married with
• Interested in, surprised at, satisfied with, disgusted with — fixed pairs

Common Idioms and Phrase Errors

NDA occasionally tests whether a well-known idiom or phrase is used correctly. These questions check if you have changed a word in a fixed expression. Treat idioms as locked phrases — even one wrong word makes it an error.

• No sooner did he leave than it rained — not 'when', must use 'than'
• Hardly had he sat down when the phone rang — not 'than'
• It is I who am responsible — not 'is' after who when antecedent is I
• The phrase 'one of the' must be followed by a plural noun: one of the boys — never 'boy'
• Double comparatives are wrong: more better, more faster are errors — use 'better', 'faster'

• Checking verb agreement with the noun nearest to it instead of identifying the actual subject — the middle phrase is a decoy
• Writing 'between you and I' — prepositions always take object pronouns, so it must be 'between you and me'
• Using 'an' before words that start with a vowel letter but a consonant sound, like 'a uniform' not 'an uniform'
• Assuming collective nouns always take plural verbs — in Indian English exams they almost always take singular
• Confusing 'no sooner...than' with 'no sooner...when' — NDA has tested this exact error multiple times

• SAPTAP rule for subject-verb traps: S = subject only matters, A = along with is ignored, P = proximity rule for either-or, T = think singular for each-every, A = A number vs The number, P = physics-news-maths are singular
• For articles remember SOUND not SPELLING — cover the spelling, say the word out loud, then pick a or an
• Preposition pairs as a chant: Angry WITH person, angry AT thing — Agree WITH person, agree TO proposal
• For tense errors imagine a timeline drawn left to right — earlier event takes past perfect (had done), later event takes simple past (did)

• NDA GAT English section has roughly 5 to 8 spotting error questions per paper — each is worth 4 marks with 1.33 negative, so accuracy matters more than speed here
• The error is almost never in Part D which says 'No error' traps — always read all four parts before marking No Error
• Read each part of the sentence aloud in your head — a grammar error often feels unnatural when spoken, which helps you locate it faster
• Subject-verb agreement and tense errors together account for nearly 60 percent of spotting error questions in NDA PYQs from 2015 to 2023
• If you cannot find an error after two passes, trust your instinct on the part that sounded odd — do not overthink; spending more than 45 seconds on one question hurts your GAT timing