IBPS RRB English Error Spotting Questions: 20 Solved Questions with Answers

IBPS RRB English Error Spotting Questions: Quick Answer

This set has 20 original error spotting questions with step-by-step explanations, written for the IBPS RRB PO and Clerk Mains English section. Every sentence is built around one rule of English grammar — subject-verb agreement, tense, articles, prepositions, pronouns, parallelism or conditionals — and in four of the twenty sentences there is no error, as the real paper does it. Each question gives you five options: four parts of the sentence and "No error". Your job is to find the one faulty part, or to say confidently that nothing is wrong. Every explanation tells you not only which part is wrong but why it is wrong and what the correct form is, so a question you miss still teaches you the rule.

Error spotting is the most predictable part of the RRB Mains English paper, and that is good news. The English section in both the RRB PO Mains and the RRB Clerk Mains is 40 questions for 40 marks in 30 minutes, with a negative marking of 0.25 marks for every wrong answer. You may attempt the section in English or in Hindi — you choose one language for the whole section, not question by question. That gives you just 45 seconds per question, and error spotting is where those seconds are cheapest: a candidate who knows the twenty most-tested rules can answer an error spotting question in under 30 seconds, banking time for the reading comprehension passage that follows.

Key takeaway: In error spotting, the error is almost always in the part of the sentence you read fastest. Slow down on the verb — check who the subject really is, what tense the sentence lives in, and whether the verb agrees with that subject. Half the questions in this set are decided by the verb alone. Read the sentence once for meaning, then once more with your eyes on the verb, and only then look at the options.

What This Set Covers

Block	Questions	Rules tested
Subject-verb agreement	1, 6, 9, 11, 14, 19	Collective nouns, "one of", "many a", "the number of", "along with"
Tense and time words	5, 10, 13, 20	Since/for, present perfect with a past date, "by the time", future in time clauses
Articles and prepositions	2, 3, 17	In/at, despite, between/among, "command of", "senior to"
Pronouns and determiners	15, 17	"One of the few who", "between you and me", relative pronouns
Parallelism and structure	7, 18	"Which" clauses, double comparatives, "not only… but also"
No-error sentences	4, 8, 12, 16	Correct sentences — the trap is inventing an error
Total	20	Mains level, 5 options each

The answer key at the bottom spreads across all five options — A 4, B 4, C 4, D 4, E 4 — so no option dominates, and no option repeats more than once in a row. If your own mock answers cluster on one letter, that is a signal to re-check, not a pattern to trust.

How to Use This Set

Give yourself 15 minutes for the 20 questions — that is 45 seconds a question, exactly the pace the RRB Mains English section demands. Read each sentence twice: once for meaning, once with your eyes on the verb. Cover the options while you read the sentence the first time, because the options will pull your attention to the wrong part. When you think you have found the error, say the corrected sentence to yourself in full before marking the answer — if the correction sounds natural and the rest of the sentence still makes sense, you have found it. If no part sounds wrong, do not force one: four questions in this set genuinely have no error, and in the real paper the "No error" option is correct roughly a fifth of the time. Mark every question you guessed, and after the timer, rework the guessed ones before reading the explanations.

The Twenty Rules That Decide Error Spotting

Error spotting looks like a test of instinct, but it is really a test of about twenty rules that the examiners return to again and again. Learn the rules and the questions become a checklist, not a gamble. The most important rule is subject-verb agreement: the verb agrees with the real subject, not with the nearest noun. "The committee have decided" is wrong because "committee" is singular here; "the number of branches have increased" is wrong because "the number" is singular, even though "branches" sits right next to the verb. The mirror image is "a number of customers was waiting", which is wrong the other way — "a number of" takes a plural verb. Two phrases that trap candidates every year are "one of the officers who have been selected" — the verb after "who" agrees with "officers", plural — and "many a student have applied", where "many a" always takes a singular verb, so it must be "has applied". Words like "along with", "as well as" and "together with" never change the number of the subject: "the teacher, along with his students, are going" is wrong, because the subject is still "the teacher", singular.

The second family of rules is tense. "Since" goes with a point of time and "for" goes with a period of time: "since five years" is wrong, "for five years" is right, and "since last Monday" is right. The present perfect never takes a finished past-time word, so "she has completed her graduation in 2023" is wrong — it must be "she completed her graduation in 2023". In a time clause, the future is expressed with the simple present: "before the exam will start" is wrong, "before the exam starts" is right. And in a conditional, the "if" clause does not take "will": "if you will apply" is wrong, "if you apply" is right.

The third family is prepositions and small words. "Despite" never takes "of" — "despite of the rain" is wrong. "Between" is used for two people and takes the objective case, so "between you and I" is wrong and "between you and me" is right. "Senior" takes "to", not "than"; "prefer" takes "to", not "than"; "good" takes "at", not "in"; "similar" takes "to", not "with"; "command" takes "of", not "over". None of these is a matter of opinion; each is a fixed pairing, and the exam tests the same pairings year after year.

The fourth family is comparatives and pronouns. A double comparative is always wrong: "much more lower" must be "much lower". When comparing two people or things, use the comparative, not the superlative: "the most intelligent of the two sisters" must be "the more intelligent of the two sisters". A relative pronoun after "one of the few" takes a plural verb, because it refers to the plural noun: "one of the few officers who is known" must be "who are known". Finally, remember the discipline of the "No error" option. In a set of twenty questions, three or four sentences will be completely correct. The examiner puts them there precisely to catch the candidate who cannot resist finding a fault. If you have checked the verb, the tense, the preposition and the pronoun, and nothing is wrong, mark "No error" and move on.