QUESTIONS ON COMMON ERRORS IN ENGLISH FOR BANK EXAM:
Questions on Common Errors are almost common in every Bank Clerical exam. Five to ten questions are asked on common grammatical or idiomatic errors. To answer the questions on Common errors, a candidate must have a good command over the grammatical rules.
In the question generally a sentence which is divided into four parts is given. A candidate is to find out the part which contains the error. The error may be due to the defective use of a word or the use of a word which should not be made or missing of a word which must be used to make the sense clear.
To spot the part which contains an error may be a difficult task. For ex¬ample, a sentence can be made correct by making change in one part or more than one parts. But in objective type questions, a question should not have more than one answer. So, a candidate has to find out the part by changing which the sentence can be made correct.
See the source of another confusion:
* He advised (1 lime (2)/go there (3).
In this sentence there is a confusion. The sentence can be made correct by using to before go.
He advised me to go there (Correct).
Now if the use of to makes the sentence correct here, in which part the error is. Is it in part (2) or in part (3)?
We can add to at the end of part (2) or at the beginning of part (3) to make the sentence correct.
Our Suggestions :
In such type of confusing situation a candidate has to evaluate the relative importance of both the parts. For example, here Bare Infinitive (go) is used in place of To-infinitive, to go. So the defect is in the use of go and it can be made correct by adding to before go. As go- is in part (3) so the answer is (3). Though such types of
. confusion are very rare but a clear understanding will make you more confident.
Now arises the question of grammatical rules. In our day to day. conversation or in casual writings or T.V. talks we follow that grammatical rules are not strictly followed. In such situations the emphasis is on language or the primary purpose of the language. Language is a medium through which a person makes another person or other persons understand the idea hel she likes to convey. Grammatical rules are formulated to overcome the differences between the idea one ex¬presses and idea one grasps. If grammatical rules were not tiiere, then he chances of misunderstanding would be much higher. So, grammatical rules evolved as a standard rules which are followed at the time of expressing some ideas or understanding some ideas expressed by others. But one thing must be made cl~ar that the grammatical rules are not something rigid, nor they are a must in conversation or informal language. Rules themselves are .changing. You might have followed that, nowadays, will is used in the First Person (singular & plural) Future Indefinite Tense. Earlier it was like that -
Future Indefinite Tense
Singular Plural
Number Number
1st Person I shall go. We shall go
2nd Person You will go. You will go.
3rd Person He will go. They will go.
At that time will was used in the First person to express firm determination. Now shall is not used or we may say that shall has become an obsolete word. And in place of shall we use will.
-See High School English Grammar & Composition by Wren and Martin.
But now, the question arises, "Should we stick to grammatical rules when such words are being obsolete day by day?" For this you decide on your own. But for Common Errors, there is no alternative but to follow the standard grammatical rules.
In case of a general student, to develop a command over all grammatical rules is not a easy nut to crack. Specially to an candidate who has completed his graduation grammatical rules are long forgotten. To re¬shuffle them is, of course, a time consuming affair. One who is in touch with his/her younger brothers or sisters and helping them in English grammar may find the task easier. But for a thorough preparation, a candidate may resort to "A Mirror of Common Errors by A.K. Singh" published from Kiran Prakashan. That must be fol¬lowed by a continuous practice using the practice sets.
If a candidate likes to follow the commonly known grammars one must be choosy. Generally a grammar contains a host of information. Classification, elaboration and other theo-etical aspects are given much impor-tance and a part of which may be proved fruitful to a candidate of Bank Clerical Exam. If you follow the ques¬tion papers of recently held exams, you can notice that, to give a good ac¬count to oneself, a candidate need not waste his time in studying and practising each and every grammatical rule. From the previously held exams, it appears that the following topics are gaining more importance now a days-
(i) Subject-Verb Agreement.
(ii) Uses of Participles and Infintives.
(iii) Uses of a, an, the. (iv) Uses of Modals
(v) Adjectives & Adverbs. (vi) Appropriate Preposition.
(vii) Superfluous Expressions and Slangs.
(viii) Pronouns and Cases.
As selective rules meant for Bank Clerical Exams are rarely available so, a collection of 100 rules are given for your convenience.
