Sentence Correction

Types of Errors in Sentence Correction

1. Subject-verb agreement
2. Pronoun agreement
3. Modifiers
4. Parallelism 
5. Comparisons 
6. Redundancy
7. Error of participles
8. Verb tenses



1. Subject-verb agreement

→Making subjects and verbs agree when words come between them.
Example: The dog that has all the cuts was in a fight.
Explanation: The true subject is the dog, not cuts. Therefore, a singular verb is needed.

→Reaching agreement when the subject is an indefinite pronoun.
Remember to add -s to the end of the verb in the present tense if the subject is one of the indefinite pronouns listed below.
anyone(everyone, no one someone)
anybody(everybody, nobody, somebody)
anything(everything, nothing, something)
each, either, neither

Example:
Each of the divers has an oxygen tank.
Nobody claims to be perfect.

→Making have, do, and be agree with their subject.
Example: 

The ghostbusters have a new client.
Martha does the homework.

2. Pronoun Agreement

Correct pronoun matches their antecedents ( the word they stand-in for). For example, "Sara took off her hat." "Sara" is the antecedent for "her". Plural pronouns(we, they, us, them) match with their plural antecedents, and singular pronouns(I, he, she, her, him, it) match with the singular antecedents.
Example: I never go to that restaurant because they have moldy cheese.

Explanation: Who has moldy cheese? We cant tell from the sentence "they" is plural pronoun, and its possible antecedens (I and restaurant) are both singular. We would rewrite it like this:

Correct Sentence: I never go to that restaurant because it has moldy  cheese.

3. Modifiers

Example: A beautiful red-haired mermaid, the president thougt ariel was highly intelligent.

Explanation: This sentence contains a dangling modifier: the president is likely not a beautiful red-haired mermaid. the modifier " a beautiful red-haired mermaid" belongs next to the noun it modifies, which is ariel. Let's rewrite  it to remove the dangling modifier.

Correct Sentence: The president thought ariel, a beautiful red-haired mermaid, was highly intelligent.

4. Parallelism

While forming a sentence, the structure of the sentneces should be kept parallel. If an infinitive is used, then all the phrases should have an infinite.

Example: She likes to cook food, dance and play.

→Similar rule is used for gerund

Example: She likes cooking, dancing and playing.

5. Comparison

The comparisons made should be between two similar things. If we say:

Example: The population of London is greatert than any other city in India.

Explanantion: We are comparing (a) The population of London   (b) any other city in india

While comparison had to be mad between the population of both. so, the correct expression should be

Correct Sentence: The popultaion of London is greater than that of any other city in India.

6. Redundancy

This is the error of writing the same thing twice.

Example: He returned back from Delhi.

Correct Sentence: He came back from Delhi.

7. Error of Participles

Functions of -ing verbs

Example:

Smoking is injurious to health.

Swimming is a good excercise.

8. Verb Tenses

The sequence of tenses is the principle in accordance with which the tense of the verb in a subordinate clause follows the tense of the verb in the principle clause.

→When verb in the Principle clause is in the present or future tense, the verb in the dependent clause may be in any tense

Example: He says that he likes music or He will say that he likes music.

→When the verb in principle clause is in the past tense, the verb in the dependent clause must also be in one or other of the four forms of the past tense.

Example: He said he was late.

→If the dependent clause states a universal truth or a habitual truth, a past tense in the principle clause is followed by present tense in the dependent clause

Example: He said that the sun rises in the east.