Error Spotting Questions for RBI GRADE B

Subject-Verb Agreement

The verb must agree in number with the subject, not with any word that comes between them. RBI papers love inserting a phrase between subject and verb to confuse you. Always locate the true subject first, then check the verb. Collective nouns like committee, government, jury take a singular verb in Indian formal writing.

• Ignore phrases starting with along with, as well as, in addition to — they do not change a singular subject to plural.
• Either/Neither with two subjects: if both are singular, verb is singular; if one is plural, verb agrees with the nearer subject.
• Each, every, everyone, nobody always take singular verbs.
• Collective nouns (jury, committee, data in formal usage) take singular verbs in standard exam grammar.
• Titles of books, countries, organizations are singular even if they look plural — e.g., The United Nations has passed a resolution.

Tense Consistency and Sequence

RBI sentences test whether you can catch a tense shift that breaks the logic of a sentence. The key rule: once a tense is established in a sentence or paragraph, do not shift without a logical time-signal word. Also remember the sequence of tenses rule — in reported speech and conditional sentences, the tense in the subordinate clause must logically follow the main clause tense.

• Past perfect is used for the earlier of two past events — He had left before she arrived.
• Simple past and past perfect should not be used interchangeably for two past events.
• Present perfect signals an action connected to the present — avoid mixing with simple past unnecessarily.
• Conditional Type 2: If + past simple, would + base verb. If I were the governor, I would cut rates.
• Historic present is acceptable in narrative — use it consistently.

Pronoun Errors

Pronouns must agree in number, gender, and person with their antecedents. RBI questions often hide the error in reflexive pronouns, relative pronouns, or pronoun case. Remember: between you and me (not I); it is I (formal, but usually tested as correct); who refers to persons, which to things.

• Use who/whom correctly: who is subject, whom is object. Trick — replace with he/him. If him works, use whom.
• Reflexive pronouns like myself, yourself cannot replace I or me — myself will attend is wrong.
• Each, everyone, nobody are singular — their pronoun must be singular (his/her, not their) in formal exam grammar.
• Ambiguous pronoun reference is an error — if the pronoun could refer to two nouns, the sentence has an error.
• It is I, not It is me — formal grammar tested in RBI-level English.

Articles — A, An, The

Articles are a favourite error source. The rule is simple but exceptions trip aspirants. Use a before consonant sounds, an before vowel sounds — this is about sound, not spelling. An hour, an MBA, a university, a European country. The is used for specific nouns, superlatives, unique things, and second mention.

• A historic event — correct (h is pronounced, not silent in standard usage). An historic — also accepted in some styles but a is more standard in exams.
• Do not use the before proper nouns like names of countries — except river names, mountain ranges, island groups.
• Superlatives always need the — the best policy, the highest rate.
• The + adjective can indicate a class — the poor, the rich.
• Omit articles before abstract nouns used generally — Honesty is the best policy (no article before honesty).

Preposition Errors

Prepositions are idiomatic in English and cannot always be guessed by logic. RBI tests specific collocations — words that always pair with a fixed preposition. The safest approach is to memorise common verb-preposition and adjective-preposition pairs used in formal/banking contexts.

• Comply with (not comply to), differ from (not differ with for things), differ with (for people in opinions).
• Preoccupied with, oblivious of/to, immune to, averse to, envious of.
• Discuss does not need a preposition — discuss the issue (not discuss about the issue).
• Married to (not married with), disgusted with/at, angry with (person) / angry at (situation).
• Lend to, borrow from — direction matters.

Parallelism and Modifiers

Parallelism means that items in a list or comparison must be in the same grammatical form. Misplaced or dangling modifiers are also common errors. A modifier must be placed next to the word it modifies, and if it is a participial phrase at the start of a sentence, its subject must match the main subject.

• Not only...but also requires parallel structure — not only increased rates but also tightened norms (both verbs, not mixing verb and noun).
• Either...or, neither...nor, both...and all require grammatically matched elements on both sides.
• Dangling modifier: Running down the street, the keys were lost — wrong. Running down the street, he lost his keys — correct.
• Comparisons must be parallel and complete — Her salary is higher than her colleague (wrong — omits salary of). Her salary is higher than her colleague's — correct.
• Avoid double comparisons — more superior, most unique are always wrong.

Common Confusables and Word Usage

RBI-level questions often test words that look or sound similar but differ in meaning or grammar. These are tricky because they require vocabulary knowledge, not just grammar rules.

• Fewer vs Less — fewer for countable nouns, less for uncountable. Fewer employees, less money.
• Farther (physical distance) vs Further (additional/figurative) — further discussion, farther town.
• Between (two things) vs Among (more than two).
• Since (point of time) vs For (duration of time) — since 2020, for two years.
• Affect (verb) vs Effect (noun) — The policy affected growth. The effect was positive.

• Checking only the underlined part without reading the full sentence — the error context often lies in another clause.
• Assuming the first part of a sentence is always correct and only looking at later parts — RBI sometimes puts the error early.
• Confusing sound-based article rule with spelling — a MBA is wrong because M sounds like em (vowel sound), so an MBA is correct.
• Marking pronoun-antecedent errors too quickly with each/everyone without checking if the sentence uses they informally — in formal grammar of RBI, singular is expected.
• Overlooking preposition collocations because the sentence sounds naturally correct in spoken Hindi-English usage — discuss about and revert back are very common wrong patterns.

• PAST rule for Subject-Verb Agreement traps: Phrases, Along with, Similarly, Together with — none of these change a singular subject. The verb stays singular.
• WHO-HIM trick for who vs whom: Replace with he or him. He fits, use who. Him fits, use whom. WhOM has M, HiM has M.
• FANBOYS for coordinating conjunctions that need parallelism: For, And, Nor, But, Or, Yet, So.
• SAFE prepositions to memorise as a set: Comply WITH, Differ FROM, Immune TO, Averse TO, Envious OF, Oblivious OF — picture a government official who is immune to criticism and averse to change.

• RBI Grade B Phase 1 English section has error spotting in a four-part sentence format (Part A, B, C, D plus no error option) or in a full sentence with one error. Read the full sentence before marking — context is key.
• Approximately 5-8 questions come from error spotting. At 0.25 negative marking, skip if genuinely unsure rather than guess between two options.
• Banking and regulatory sentences are common themes — sentences about RBI policy, fiscal deficit, monetary transmission. Know formal collocations in these domains.
• Tense and subject-verb errors are the highest-frequency types in RBI PYQs (2018-2023). Spend maximum revision time here.
• Parallelism and modifier errors appear less often but are worth knowing for Phase 2 descriptive English as well — the same grammar applies to essay and precis writing.