CDS English Trend Analysis Spotting The Errors Study Material

CDS English Trend Analysis Spotting The Errors Study Material : CDS Study Material in English.

Back to Index : CDS Study Material, Exam Details, Notifications, Study Material Sample Model Previous Year Practice Question Papers

CDS TREND ANALYSIS OF EACH TOPIC

(2016 – 2014)

CDS Important Written Exam Study Material in English  “SPOTTING THE ERRORS”

Generally, 15 to 20 questions based on spotting the errors are asked in CDS exam. In these type of questions, the given sentences are divided into three parts with each part marked as (a), (b), and (c). We have to choose that part as our answer which has error. If there is no error in any part, then we have to choose option (d) as the answer.

‘Spotting the errors’ or ‘Syntax’ is that part of English language, where the grammatical skills of the candidates are comprehensively tested. Therefore, it can be said to be the most important part of the language proficiency test. It is an integrated grammar exercise, so it covers all the grammatical parts. This includes

• Parts of speech
• Number, gender, cases and degrees
• Confusing words
• Uses of tenses
• Non- finites
• Determiners and articles

All these areas are to be studied thoroughly to score high in the CDS examination.

CDS Written Exam Study Material : FORMAT OF THE QUESTIONS IN ERROR EXCERCISE

Each question consists of a complex sentence, which is divided into three parts. One of the parts may contain an error. The candidate has to spot the error and mark the incorrect option/parts. In case, there is no error in the sentence, option (d), which stands for No error needs to be selected.

An example of this type of question is given below.

Direction which part of the following sentence contains an error? In case there is no error, choose option (d).

Question (a) The train should arrive     (b)at 7:30 in the morning   (c) but it was almost an hour late      (d)No error

Ans. (a) In the given sentence, option (a) is given as ‘The train should arrive’ while the correct sentence is ‘The train should have arrived’. Here ‘should arrive’ should be replaced by ‘should have arrived’. So, option (a) has an error.

 DEFINITION, KINDS, NUMBERS, CASES AND EXAMPLES OF NOUN

DEFINITION OF NOUN

A word that refers to a person, place, things event, substance or quality is called a Noun.

E.g. Ram, Delhi, Book, Lion, Street, etc.

KINDS OF NOUN

1. Common Noun It is a name given to every person o thing of the same class or kind.

e.g. – Boy, girl, fan, chair, etc.

2. Proper Noun Details of common nouns are signified by proper noun.

e.g. – Amit, Amita, Polar fan, Supreme chair, etc.

3. Material Noun It refers to a material or substance from which things are made such as silver, gold, iron, cotton, diamond and plastic.
4. Abstract Noun it is the name of a feeling, quality or a state.

e.g. – Feeling Love, fear, hate, anger, respect, pleasure, etc.

– Quality Strength, pitch, innocence, gluttony, judgment,                         obedience, beauty, death, etc.

     5. Collective Noun Some nouns refer to groups of people (e.g.             audience, team, committee, government etc.). These are                       called as Collective Nouns

NUMBER OF NOUNS

There are two kinds of nouns of number, which are as follow

Singular Noun It refers to one (single) person or thing.

e.g. – boy, girl, table, man, etc.

Plural Noun It refers to more than one person or things.
e.g. – boys, girls, tables, men, etc.

Sometimes plurals are made by changing the inside vowel.

Singular                                            Plural

Man                                                    Men

Women                                              Women

Foot                                                    Feet

Tooth                                                 Teeth

Mouse                                                Mice

Sometimes plurals are made by adding‘s’ to the principal word of a compound noun. e.g.

Singular                                              Plural

Brother-in-law                                 Brothers-in-law

Vice-Admiral                                     Vice-Admirals

Court Martial                                    Courts Martial

Commander-in-chief                      Commanders-in-chief

Runner-up                                         Runners-up

Looker-on                                         Lookers-on

Some other examples are as follows

Singular                                             Plural

Ox                                                       Oxen

Datum                                                Data

Medium                                             Media

Stratum                               Strata

Index                                                  Indices

Formula                                            Formulae

Lacuna                                               Lacunae

Alumnus                                             Alumni

Corrigendum                                    Corrigenda

Erratum                                            Errata

Syllabus                                             Syllabi

Nouns like sheep, deer, offspring, cod, fish, salmon, etc have the same form in both the numbers.

CDS Study Material Important Practice Sets “RULES NOUN”

1. Articles are not used before material nouns.

e.g. – The leather is used in making shoes.

– Leather is used in making shoes.

2. Material nouns and abstract nouns are not used in plural.

e.g.  – Cares of the old is necessary.

–   Care of the old is necessary.

3. Proper nouns are sometimes used as common nouns.

e.g., -Samudragupta is the Napoleon of India.

-Kalidas is the Shakespeare of India.

In these two sentences, the proper nouns Napoleon and Shakespeare are added as common nouns.

4. Collective nouns usually take a singular verb and are substituted by a singular pronoun.

e.g. – The jury has given its verdict.

– The team has performed to its potential.

5. Collective nouns take a plural verb and are substituted by a plural pronoun when the group members do not behave as whole but take different directions.

e.g. – The jury is/are divided in its/ their decision.

–  The Ministry are much divided in their opinion regarding the foreign policy.

6. Collective nouns, even when they denote living beings are considered to be of neuter gender.

e.g. – India has a big army and it is divided into three major divisions.

7. Young children and animals are also referred to as neuter gender.

e.g. – The baby started crying when it was hungry.

-The lizard lost its tail when it was frightened.

8. When objects without life are personified, they are considered either masculine or feminine gender.

Masculine Gender is used for strength violence anger and winter.

e.g. – Nature has taken his vengeance by claiming lives of 100 persons.

-The sun, with his brilliance came out of the clouds.

These sentences emphasis the strong masculine traits of nature and the sun i.e. ‘vengeance’ and                                        ‘brilliance’, so the masculine gender ‘his’ is used.

    Feminine Gender is used for beauty, gentleness and gracefulness. It is used with Earth, Moon, spring,                      Nature and even for Sun.

e.g. – Nature offers its/ her lap to those who seek it.

-The sun, with her warmth, provided relief from the bitter cold.

In the above sentences, the tender feminine traits of nature and the sun are revealed, so the feminine gender (her) is used.

9. Units of counting, i.e., pair, dozen, score, hundred, thousand, etc, when used after numbers retain their singular form.

e.g. – Ten pair, Five dozen, Two score, Six hundred, Three thousand, one lakh, ten crore, Eight million, Ten billion, etc.

e.g. – My friend bought two dozen / dozens eggs from the market.

Here, the quantity is mentioned before the dozen, so we have its singular form.

E.g. – My friend bought dozens of eggs from the market.

Here, the quantity is not mentioned in the above sentence, so we use the plural form ‘dozens’. One more examples is

e.g. – Sunil Gavaskar scored thousands of runs in his cricketing career.

10. In a compound noun, a compounds word e sot used in plural of a noun does the work of an adjective.

e.g. – He is pursuing a two year /years diploma course.

• He is a fifteen year/years old boy.
• I have got a hundred rupee/rupees note.
• He ran a five mile/miles
• They went on a fifteen day/days

11. The following nouns are used only on plural

• Names of instruments, which have two parts forming a kind of pair. Like scissors, spectacles, glasses, tongs, etc.

e.g. – Scissors are/ is used to cut.

-My pair of spectacles is very expensive.

In the above sentence, we use singular form ‘is’ as the word ‘pair’ is added before the word                ‘spectacles’.

• Certain articles of dress as trousers, shorts, jeans, etc.

e.g. –Jeans are in vogue these days.

• Certain collective nouns (although they are singular in form). Police cattle, gentry peasantry, clergy, people, poultry, majority, artillery, infantry, etc.

e.g. – Police have reached the crime centre.

• Some Plural forms are commonly used in singular like Mathematics, Statistics, Physics, Economics, (All subjects ) , gymnastics, News, Innings, Series, Measles, Rabies, Mumps, Rickets, Summons, Names of Books, etc.
• Uncountable nouns are used in the singular forms only. Indefinite article (a, an) is not used before them, nor are they (a, an) used with plural verbs. ‘Much’ is used in place of ‘Many’ for denoting plurality.

CASES OF NOUN

There are three types of cases of noun, which are as follow

1. Nominative Case

A noun or pronoun is the nominative case if it is used as the subject of a verb.

e.g. – Sachin Tendulkar scored a century.

                Clue Put Who in active sentence and What in Passive sentence before the verb to get                nominative case.

2. Objective Case

A noun or pronoun is in the objective case if it is used as the object of a verb.

e.g. – Sachin Tendulkar scored a century (Active).

               Clue Put What in active sentence and Whom in the passive sentence after the subject and the                verb to get the objective case.

3. Possessive Case

A noun is said to be in the possessive case of it denotes possession, authorship, origin, kind, etc.

e.g.- Amit’s house is at the back-side.

CDS Important English Set Portion :- How is Possessive Case Formed?

i.)  By adding’s to a singular noun.

        e.g. – Amit’s Donald’s.

ii.)  By adding’s to plural nouns not ending in s.

        e.g. – Children’s school, Men’s club.

iii.)  By adding only an apostrophe to a plural noun ending in s.

        e.g. – Boy’s, victim’s, pilgrims’.

iv.)  By adding only an apostrophe to a singular noun when there are hissing sounds.

        e.g.  – Jesus’ blessings, for peace’ sake, for conscience’ sake.

CDS English Study Material According to Syllabus and Sample Paper  :- Rules of Possessive Case

i.)  In case of a compound noun, the possessive sign is attached only to the last word.

e.g. – My brother-in-laws’s marriage.

-The Queen-of-England’s residence.

ii.)  When two or more nouns show joint possession the apostrophe sign is put with the latter only.

e.g. – Dharmendra is Sunny and Bobby’s father.

iii.)  The words his, hers, its, theirs, yours, ours are possession and they are not written with the possessives sign.

e.g. – Neither did his efforts succeed nor your’s/ yours.

iv.)  The adverb ‘else’ combined with indefinite pronouns (somebody, anybody, etc) is expressed in possession case as ‘somebody else’s.

        e.g.- Is it your house? I thought it is somebody else’s/somebody else ‘?

v.)  The words church, house school, shop are often omitted after a possessive case.

       e.g. – Yesterday I met my friend at St John’s.

vi.)  The possessive case is chiefly used with the names of living things.

vii.)  The possessive case is also used with nouns denoting time, space or weight.

e.g. – Stone’s throw away distance

-A minute’s time

-A day’s journey

SOME CONFUSING WORDS

Join Our CTET UPTET Latest News WhatsApp Group

Like Our Facebook Page