Spotting Errors Questions for SSC CHSL

Subject-Verb Agreement

The verb must match its subject in number. The trick is that the subject and verb are often separated by phrases that confuse you. Always identify the real subject and ignore the words in between. Collective nouns like committee, team, jury take a singular verb when acting as one unit.

• Two subjects joined by AND take a plural verb: Ram and Shyam are friends.
• Two subjects joined by OR, NOR, EITHER-OR, NEITHER-NOR: verb agrees with the subject closest to it.
• Everyone, someone, anyone, nobody, each, every — always take singular verbs.
• The phrase along with, together with, as well as does NOT make the subject plural. The real subject still controls the verb.
• News, mathematics, physics, measles are singular nouns — use singular verbs.

Articles — A, An, The

Articles cause many errors in SSC CHSL. Remember that A and An depend on the sound of the next word, not the spelling. Use The for specific or already-mentioned nouns. Many candidates forget that some places and things take no article at all.

• Use An before vowel sounds: an hour, an honest man, an MBA. Use A before consonant sounds: a university, a one-rupee coin.
• Use The before unique things: the sun, the moon, the Prime Minister.
• No article before languages, sports, meals, subjects: She plays cricket. He studies English.
• No article before proper nouns in most cases: India, Delhi, Ravi.
• The is used before superlatives: He is the best student.

Tense Errors

Tense errors appear regularly. The key rule is that tenses inside a sentence must be consistent and logical. Watch out for sentences that mix past and present, or that use wrong tense after certain time words and conjunctions.

• If the main clause is in past tense, subordinate clause should also be in past: She said that she was tired.
• Universal truths and proverbs are always in simple present even if the main clause is past: The teacher said that the Earth revolves around the Sun.
• After since, use perfect tense: I have lived here since 2010.
• After until, before, after — do not use will in the subordinate clause: I will wait until you come (not until you will come).
• Scarcely-when, Hardly-when, No sooner-than: use Past Perfect in the first clause.

Pronoun Errors

Pronouns must agree with their antecedents in number and gender. SSC CHSL regularly tests whether candidates know when to use who versus whom, and whether the pronoun case is correct.

• Use who as subject, whom as object: Who called you? Whom did you call?
• Each, everyone, someone takes singular pronoun: Everyone must bring his or her book.
• Reflexive pronouns like myself, yourself are used only when subject and object are the same: I hurt myself. Do not say: Please contact myself.
• Between is followed by objective pronouns: between you and me (not between you and I).
• Than and as in comparisons take the correct case: She is taller than I (am).

Preposition Errors

Wrong preposition choice is a very common error type in SSC CHSL. These are mostly tested through fixed phrases and idioms. Memorize the correct preposition that goes with common verbs, adjectives, and nouns.

• Afraid of, accuse of, agree with (a person), agree to (a proposal), differ from, differ with.
• Married to, engaged to, related to — never use with.
• Inferior to, superior to, senior to, junior to, prior to — always to, never than.
• Blind of one eye but blind to faults. Die of a disease but die by the sword.
• Look after means to care, look into means to investigate, look up means to search.

Adjective and Adverb Errors

These questions test whether an adjective or adverb is used in the right place and in the correct comparative or superlative form. Double comparatives and superlatives are a very common trap in SSC CHSL.

• Never use double comparative: more better is wrong, say better. More worse is wrong, say worse.
• Never use double superlative: most tallest is wrong, say tallest.
• Use comparative when comparing two, superlative when comparing three or more: She is the taller of the two sisters. He is the tallest of the three brothers.
• Elder and eldest are used only for family members, not general comparisons. Older and oldest are used for age in general.
• Adjective after linking verbs like seem, appear, feel, smell, taste: The milk smells sour (not sourly).

• Choosing the part with a long or complex phrase thinking complexity means error — SSC often places the error in a short and simple part of the sentence.
• Ignoring the phrase between subject and verb, like The quality of the mangoes are good — students say are because mangoes is close, but the real subject is quality, so is is correct.
• Using more with adjectives that already have a comparative form: more better, more faster — this is a classic SSC trap.
• Confusing between into and in to: He went into the room (movement) vs He came in to meet me (purpose).
• Marking no error without reading the sentence twice — many candidates hurry and miss preposition or article errors in the last part of the sentence.

• PAST mnemonic for tense rules: P = Proverbs always present, A = After since use perfect, S = Subordinate clause matches main, T = Time conjunctions drop will.
• SANA rule for singular verbs: Someone, Anyone, Nobody, Anyone — all singular, always.
• Superior TO, not Superior THAN — remember: These words are already doing the comparison, so they use to not than. Think: Superior TO means it is above, not better than.
• Article trick — sound not spelling: Use An before any vowel sound. Ask yourself: how does the word sound when spoken? A uniform sounds like YOO, so use A. An hour sounds like OWR, so use An.

• SSC CHSL usually gives 3 to 5 Spotting Errors questions per shift. Each sentence is divided into parts labeled A, B, C, D — one part has the error, or D may say no error.
• Subject-verb agreement and preposition errors appear in almost every paper. Practice at least 10 PYQ sentences from these two areas before the exam.
• The no error option is chosen correctly only about 20 to 25 percent of the time in actual papers — so if you cannot find any error, re-read once before marking it.
• These questions should take no more than 30 to 40 seconds each. Read the full sentence once, identify the subject and verb, then check parts one by one.
• Recent SSC CHSL papers from 2023 and 2024 show a preference for errors in articles, prepositions, and pronoun case — especially who vs whom and between you and me type sentences.