These aren't random grammar rules pulled from a textbook — they're the exact mistake patterns that show up repeatedly in official SSC CGL Tier 1 papers. Each one below is a real, verified sentence from the dataset, with the error explained so you can recognize the pattern instantly next time it appears in a different sentence.
1. Subject-Verb Agreement with "Every" / "Each"
"Every employee of the company were given a two bedroom flat as Diwali bonus."
Error: "were given" → should be "was given". "Every" and "each" always take a singular verb, no matter how many items follow in the sentence.
2. Subject-Verb Agreement with Measurements & Quantities
"Ten kilometres are a long distance to cover on foot for a child."
Error: "are" → should be "is". When a quantity, distance, or amount is treated as a single unit (not individual items), it takes a singular verb — "ten kilometres" here means "a distance of ten kilometres," a singular concept.
3. Subject-Verb Agreement with Relative Clauses
"The river Yamuna has many non-native species like goldfish that is affecting its eco-system."
Error: "that is affecting" → should be "that are affecting". The relative pronoun "that" refers back to "species" (plural), not "goldfish" alone, so the verb must agree with the plural subject.
4. "Since" vs. "For"
"The street artist Satish Munjal has been painting this wall since the past one week."
Error: "since the past one week" → should be "for the past one week". Use "since" with a specific starting point in time (since Monday, since 2020); use "for" with a duration (for one week, for three years).
5. Wrong Preposition Choice
"The Japanese artist Yoh Nagao was busy splashing the wall from colours."
Error: "from colours" → should be "with colours". "Splash something with X" is the correct collocation — prepositions in English are often idiomatic and can't be guessed from translation.
6. "Being" vs. "Been"
"If so many catches had not being dropped, we would have won the match."
Error: "had not being dropped" → should be "had not been dropped". After "had," the past participle "been" is required, not the present participle "being" — a very common mix-up because the two words sound similar.
7. Comparative vs. Superlative
"In the northern suburbs of Bengaluru... the water crisis is even worst."
Error: "is even worst" → should be "is even worse". "Worse" compares two things (comparative); "worst" is used only for the single most extreme case among three or more (superlative). "Even" is a strong clue that a comparative is needed here.
8. Broken Parallel Structure in a List
"Due to the Cyclone Idai vast areas of land have been flooded, roads destroyed and communications disrupting in Zimbabwe and Mosambique."
Error: "communications disrupting" → should be "communications disrupted". When listing multiple past participles in a series (flooded, destroyed, ___), all items must match the same grammatical form — switching to "disrupting" breaks the parallel structure.
9. Subjunctive Mood After "In Order That"
"She got two quick promotions in order that she has good communication skills."
Error: "she has good communication skills" → should be "she might have good communication skills". Purpose clauses introduced by "in order that" or "so that" typically require "may/might/should + verb," not a simple present tense.
10. Direct-to-Indirect Speech Word Order
"Supriya asked Kiran that where had her mother gone when the results of the contest were being declared."
Error: "that where had her mother gone" → should be "where her mother had gone". Two mistakes stack here: indirect questions never use "that" before a question word, and the word order must flip back to statement order (subject before verb), not stay in question form.
How to Use This List
Don't just memorize these 10 sentences — the exam will never repeat them exactly. Instead, internalize the underlying rule in each one, since these are the same rule categories that reappear across different sentences every year. Revisit our Common Errors in SSC CGL English guide for the step-by-step technique on spotting these under time pressure.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q1. Which of these mistakes is most common in the actual exam?
Subject-verb agreement errors (categories 1–3 above) appear most frequently across papers, since English naturally has many edge cases — collective nouns, quantities, and relative clauses all trip up agreement rules in different ways.
Q2. Is it worth memorizing exception rules like "every takes singular verb"?
Yes — these small, fixed rules cost little time to memorize but consistently resolve 1–2 questions per paper, making them some of the highest-value grammar rules to know cold.
Q3. How is "since" different from "for" if both refer to time?
"Since" anchors to a fixed starting point (since Monday, since 2020), while "for" measures a duration regardless of when it started (for two days, for a decade). If you can replace the time phrase with a specific date, use "since"; if it's a length of time, use "for."
Practice applying these patterns with our Mock Test Day 2, which includes fresh Spotting Error and Sentence Improvement questions.
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