Sentence
Correction for
BBA,MBA,bank job and
Others
Exam test
BBA and MBA Test exam has a some of grammar error types. Which
is listed below.
Therefore, you only need
to learn a some of grammar rules – you don't need to master
every grammatical and
stylistic rule of Standard Written English to do well on BBA and MBA exams.
Some of most common error topics
A. Pronoun Agreement.
B. Parallelism
C.subject-verb agreement
D.compairsons
E.modifairs
Pronoun
Agreement
Pronouns stand in for nouns in a sentence. Pronouns
follow the same agreement
rules as nouns, so when using a pronoun, it is important to be
clear about what noun it
is replacing. The first step in tackling a pronoun
question is to locate and identify
any pronouns in the sentence.
Subject
object
I
me
he/she
him/her
we
us
they
them
who
whom
it, one,
it,one
you
you
Pronoun Agreement
Overview of this section:
1. Pronoun Subject vs Pronoun Object
2. Who vs Whom
3. Singular and Plural Pronouns
4. Possessive Pronoun Agreement
5. Objects of to be verbs
6. Relative Pronouns
7. Impersonal Pronouns
1. Pronoun Subject vs Pronoun Object
Once you've found a pronoun in a Sentence Correction question,
check whether
it's acting as the SUBJECT or the OBJECT of the sentence or
phrase. Is following
sentence correct or incorrect?
How could she blame you and he for the accident?
The first step is to identify the pronoun(s). There are three in
this sentence: "she," "you,"
and "he"
How could she blame you and he for the
accident?
:Next, try to define whether each pronoun is acting as a subject or object.
Here, "she" is the subject, and the pronouns "you" and
"he" are acting as the objects of the sentence:
How do we know this? Because "she" is doing the action
(blaming) and "you" and "he" are receiving it (getting
blamed). However, "he" does not seem to be in the correct form. Refer
to the chart above, or to the proper answer to the question "Who did she
blame?",which is "him" not "he." ("Who did she
blame? She blamed him.")
Both pronouns acting as objects must be in the objective case;
as indicated in the
graphic above, "him" is objective — while
"he," used in the first sentence, is subjective,
and therefore incorrect.
Incorrect: How could she blame you
and he for the accident?
Correct: How could she blame you
and him for the accident?
Let's look at another example:
Incorrect: Her was
better suited for the job.
Correct: She was
better suited for the job.
Here, the pronoun is the subject of the sentence, as "the
job" is clearly not the subject,
and there are no other nouns in the sentence. Because the
pronoun stands in for "the
woman" (some woman), the pronoun should be the subject form
of the her/she pronoun
as indicated by the chart: meaning, "she".
Now let's look at a commonly mangled case:
John and me drank a bottle of wine.
Because it's confused so often in spoken language, it can be
difficult to tell when the
pronoun in the phrase "someone else and me/I" is used
incorrectly. But it's actually quite easy to remember when to use
"me", and when to use "I": cross out everything in the
"someone else and me/I" phrase except the pronoun – and then read it
aloud. How does it sound? If it sounds fine, the pronoun is correct; if it
sounds really weird, the pronoun is incorrect. In the example above:
"Me drank a bottle of wine" sounds like caveman-speak,
so the proper pronoun is clearly .
Incorrect: John and me drank a
bottle of wine.
Correct: John and I drank a
bottle of wine.
Let's try it again on the following sentence:
The dinner was eaten by John and I.
Perform the test:
The dinner was eaten by John and I. ?
Or
The dinner was eaten by John and me. ?
The second sentence is grammatically correct ("I/me"
is acting as the object), so the
proper pronoun is "me." This test works for many
instances of misused pronouns, but to
be safe, you should memorize the subject/object pronoun chart –
just in case you can't
figure out which version is right after you do the test.
Incorrect: The dinner was eaten by
John and I .
Correct: The dinner was eaten by
John and me.
1. Who vs Whom
If the pronoun is acting as a subject, use who. If it is acting
as an object,
use whom.
I don't know whom Kate
married.
Why is "whom" correct? Because Kate is the subject of
this sentence – not the person
she married. To simplify who/whom questions, try rearranging the
sentence into a
question, and then answer it. Let's try it:
Question: Who/m did Kate marry?
Answer: Kate married him.
You wouldn't say "Kate married he," right? Since the
pronoun used in the answer is
"him," an object pronoun, the pronoun in the original
sentence should also be an object
pronoun: whom.
Here's another one to try:
Who took out the trash?
Because the sentence is already a question, you can't run the
test as we did above. But
not to worry: all you need to do is answer the question:
He took out the trash.
You wouldn't say "him took out the trash," so the
pronoun in the original sentence must
match the form of the pronoun "he," which is a subject
pronoun: who is correct.
2. Singular and Plural
Pronouns
Pronouns also act like nouns in the realm of verb
agreement. For some pronoun
questions, you also need to check if the pronoun and its verb
agree in number.
All of the following
pronouns are
singular:
anyon
either
neither
what
anything
everyone
no one
whatever
each
everything
nothing
whoever
These are plural:
both
many
several
others
few
Here's an example:
Incorrect: Everyone on the
project have to come to the meeting.
Correct: Everyone on the
project has to come to the meeting.
Referring to the chart above, you'll see that the pronoun
"everyone" is singular. Its verb
must therefore be singular as well: "has" is correct,
not "have".
Incorrect: Neither his bodyguards
nor he were there. ["Was"
is correct!]
Correct: Neither he nor his
bodyguards were there.
As covered in an earlier section of this
chapter, the constructions "either... or" and
"neither.. .nor" always take the verb form that
matches the noun that is closer to the
verb. Thus, "were" is incorrect in the first sentence because
"he," a singular pronoun, is
closer to the verb than "bodyguards," a plural noun;
but "were" is correct in the second
sentence because the order of the subjects is reversed, so that
the plural noun
"bodyguards" is closer to the verb.
4. Possessive Pronoun Agreement
When you come across possessive pronouns such as your, their, his,
and hers, check
to see whether they agree with other pronouns in the
sentence. Most possessive
pronouns are used messily in spoken language, so be careful to
take special note
when you see two pronouns in a sentence.
Incorrect: Some of you will have to
bring their own beer.
Correct: Some of you will have to
bring your own beer.
In this sentence, the possessive pronoun towards the end of the
sentence should match
the pronoun following "Some of". Because the first
pronoun is "you", the possessive
pronoun must be your, not their.
"Their" would only be correct if the sentence began
"Some of them will have to bring…
"
Incorrect: If anyone comes over,
take their name.
Correct: If anyone comes over,
take his or her name.
The subject is anyone, which is singular, and which
therefore requires a singular
pronoun such as "his" or "her". This error
has become common because of the demand
for political correctness; instead of saying "his or
her", people will often just say "their."
Either "his" or "her" alone is technically
correct, but writing "his or her," as in this
example, is also acceptable.
3. "Objects"
of to be verbs are in the subject form
Very simple: watch for pronouns
following "to be" verbs such "It should have been,"
"It
is," "It could have been," "It was",
and make sure they are in subject form. This is
another error common in speech; but it's easy to identify, and
easy to fix.
Incorrect: It must have been her who
called.
Correct: It must have been she who
called.
"It must have been" is a "to be" verb, so
the pronoun must be in subject form: "she," not
"her".
6. Relative Pronouns
Which, that and who are relative pronouns. A relative pronoun
must refer to the
word immediately preceding it. If the
meaning of the sentence is unclear, the pronoun
is in the wrong position. Which introduces
non-essential clauses; that introduces
essential clauses. Who refers to
individuals; that refers to a group of persons, class,
type, or species.
Incorrect: John was met at the door
by a strange man, which he, being afraid, opened
slowly.
Did John open "the man?" Probably not. This sentence
is definitely confusing, but its
meaning can be clarified by adjusting the placement of the nouns
in the sentence.
Correct: John was met by a strange
man at the door, which he opened slowly out of
fear.
It's now clear what John is opening, and why.
7. Impersonal Pronouns
On the BANK EXAMS, the pronouns "one" and
"you," which are included in a class of
pronouns called "impersonal pronouns," are often
improperly matched with their
respective possessive pronouns. You
might have heard that using "you" is less
proper than using "one," but on the BANK EXAMS, all
that matters is that the
pronouns agree –
there's no word-choice preference one way or the other. Look at
these examples:
Incorrect: One should
have their teeth checked every six
months.
Correct: One should
have one's teeth checked every six
months.
Correct: One should
have his or her teeth
checked every six months.
Correct: You should
have your teeth checked every six
months.
Incorrect: One should
take your responsibilities
seriously.
Correct: One should
take one's responsibilities
seriously.
Correct: One should
take his or her responsibilities
seriously.
Correct: You should
take your responsibilities
seriously.
As long as "one" isn't paired with "your,"
or "you" with "one's," the sentence is
probably correct.
A summary of how to recognize pronoun error.
Look for:
Subject or object pronouns
Who or whom
Pronoun agreement
Relative pronouns
Parallelism
C.
Par
allel
ism
"Parallelism" means that all items or ideas in a
sentence need to be in the same
format. Unlike some of the other
grammatical topics covered in this chapter, parallelism is a pretty
intuitive concept to master; there are no exceptions to memorize, no strange
rules to remember . Once you understand the concept, you're pretty much good to
go. But why, if it's so simple, is parallelism included so often on the BANK
EXAMS? For the same reason than misplaced modifiers, subject-verb agreement,
and other "simple" topics are included: because
test writers don't expect you to recognize it.
The concept of parallelism is easy to master - but recognizing a
parallelism question is more difficult. This
section will show you how to do both: it will begin with a more detailed
explanation of what parallelism is, and what it dictates; the latter portion
will list the differen ways in which parallel constructions are commonly
used on the BANK EXAMS.
How to recognize a parallelism
Parallelism is a rule of English grammar that demands
consistency in a sentence's structure. Any
lists of ideas,
places, activities, or descriptions that have the same level of
importance – whether they be words, phrases, or clauses -
must be written in the same grammatical form. Some
examples:
activities: running, biking, and
hiking
places: the store, the museum,
and the restaurant
ideas: how to read, how to
write, and how to learn
descriptions: quickly, quietly, and
happily
all end in ––ing; the 'places' are all singular nouns;
the 'ideas'
all begin with 'how to'; the 'descriptions' all end in –ly.
In each list, whatever grammatical form is applied to
one item is
applied to all items
.On the BBA,MBA Test exam,
this rule – what
applies to one must apply to all – is pretty much all you need
to remember.
Click here for all extra
subject-verb agreement hints and tips
.
Parallelism
Overview of this section:
1. Lists of Verbs
2. Lists of Adjectives or Adverbs
3. Comparisons: Multiple Pronoun
1. Lists of Verbs
All elements in a list should be in similar form. "Similar
form" means that all nouns, all
infinitives, all gerunds, all prepositional phrases, or all
clauses must agree. On the test, you'll often see lists of verbs, of which two
agree, but one does not. In order for the sentence to be correct, all
three verbs must agree:
Example:Patty ate macaroons, drank soda
and was dancing the tango.
This is a list of activities – more specifically, those
activities undertaken by Patty. Parallelism dictates that all the things Patty
did must be listed in the same form, and since 'all the thing Patty did' are
verbs, all verbs in the sentence must agree in tense and number. Do they? The list
of verbs in the incorrect sentence contains two singular simple past tense
verbs ('ate' and 'drank') and one singular past progressive verb ('was
dancing'). The verbs should all match:
Example:Patty ate macaroons, drank soda
and danced the tango.
The correct version changes the mismatched past progressive form
to the simple past tense like the other verbs in the list.
Incorrect: Patty ate macaroons, drank soda
and was dancing the tango.
Correct: Patty ate macaroons, drank soda
and danced the tango.
Here's another example using a list of verbs:
· Incorrect: All business students
should learn word processing, accounting,
and how to program the
computer.
Correct: All business students
should learn word processing, accounting,
and computer
programming.
The verb "to program" must be changed to
"programming," because the rest of the verbs are already in the -ing
form.
You'll often see lists of infinitives on the BANK EXAMS:
the "to ___" verbs (to walk, to talk, to eat, to
chat, to drink…). With infinitives, a very simple rule applies: the word
"to" must either go only before the first verb in
the list, or before every verb in the list. For example:
Correct: He likes to swim, to sail,
and to dance.
Correct: He likes to swim,
sail, and dance.
Incorrect: He likes to swim,
sail, and to dance.
The first two sentences are equally acceptable variations. The
third sentence is incorrect because it displays no consistency
whatsoever; the verbs change from to swim to sail,
and then back to to dance. This is in clear violation of the
rules we've laid out.
List of infinitives: Options
To ______________, ______________, and
______________.
To ______________, to ______________, and to
______________.
The principle governing lists of infinitives applies, in fact,
to
any words that might come before each item in a series:
prepositions (in, on, by, with), articles (the, a, an),
helping
verbs (had, has, would) and possessives (his, her, our).
Either
repeat the word before every element in a series or include it
only before the first item. Anything else violates the rules of
parallelism.
2. Lists of Adjectives or Adverbs
Just like verbs, adverbs or adjectives in a list must agree. Descriptive
words are easy to replace with wordy phrases, and test writers will try to trip
you up by including a verb or phrase among a list of adjectives or adverbs:
On the morning of his fourth birthday, Jonny was giggly,
energetic, and couldn't wait for the party to begin.
If you read through it quickly, it might sound acceptable.
However, the list includes one ite that doesn't belong:
This looks to be a list of adjectives until you reach the third
item in the list: it's not an adjective, it's a verb! The "list of
adjectives" won't be complete until the last item falls into step with
the others:
This example replaces the verb phrase "couldn't wait"
with the descriptive phrase "very eager— which indeed includes an
adjective.
Watch for consistency in item type as well as
consistency of form.
Incorrect: On the morning of his
fourth birthday, Johnny was giggly, energetic and couldn't
wait for the party to begin.
Correct: On the morning of his
fourth birthday, Johnny was giggly, energetic and very
eager for the party to begin.
3. Comparisons: Multiple Pronouns
Sometimes, you'll come across sentences with multiple pronouns.
In many cases,
parallelism requires that the pronouns be identical.
Incorrect: Those who exercise
in addition to maintaining a healthy diet are likely to be in better
health than the people who maintain a healthy diet
but don't exercise.
Correct: Those who exercise
in addition to maintaining a healthy diet are likely to be in better health
than those who maintain a healthy diet
but don't exercise.
In the first sentence, the pronoun "those who," in the
first part of the sentence, is matched with the phrase "the people
who" in the second part of the sentence. Notice how much cleaner and
easier to understand the second sentence is.
Look at the sentence below:
If one decides to break the law, they must be willing to take
responsibility for any
repercussions.
This sentence contains two pronouns. Do they match
If one decide
to break the law, they must be
willing to take responsibility for any repercussions.
When using the word "one" as a pronoun referring to an
unspecified person, the only
acceptable match is "one": the first sentence inserts
"they" instead, which is incorrect. The same rule applies for the
pronoun "you" when it's used to refer to an unspecified person. The
BANK EXAMS does not prefer one to the other, but "one" and
"you" cannot be used
interchangeably in the same sentence:
Incorrect: If one decide
to break the law, you must be
willing to take responsibility for any repercussions.
Correct: If one decide
to break the law, one must be
willing to take responsibility for any repercussions.
Correct: If you decide
to break the law, you must be willing to take
responsibility for any repercussions.
Both latter versions are correct.
Subjects and verbs must agree in a same sentence
the sentence refers, and so
two must always agree in number: singular subjects must be
paired with singular verbs;
plural subjects, with plural verbs. Though it may sound simple The
'subject' of a sentence is the noun to which the verb in, theBank exam uses
trick constructions and phrasings that make these questions seem far
more complicated, and confusing, than they actually are.
Test writers will try to fool you by writing unusual phrases
that make it difficult to tell if the subject is singular or plural. Below,
you'll find a list of rules and tips for subject-verb agreemen that will assist
you in making sense of confusing questions.
Subject-Verb Agreement
Overview of this section:
1. Subject / verb separation
2. Collective nouns
3. Plural / singular
4. Neither / either
5. Or / nor
6. Subject / verb / object
1. A subject and verb may be separated by an accompanying phrase
without changing the agreement process.
Example:The child, together with his grandmother and
his parents, is going to the beach.
This sentence is grammatically correct. When a
phrase connected by commas
Come between a subject and a verb, the subject and verb must
still agree, even if the sandwiched phrase contains other nouns. The
accompanying phrase "his grandmother and his parents" only provides
extra information and does not alter in any way the grammatical relationship
between the subject (the child) and the verb (is going).
Pay special attention to who or what is
doing the action indicated by the verb, and make sureit agrees with the verb;
ignore everything else.
Here is any easy way to handle this kind of "sandwich"
agreement question. Take a look atthe following sentence and decide whether it
is correct or incorrect:
Example:Azad, accompanied by his students, were at
the studio.
There are three nouns in this sentence, and two verbs. To
clarify which noun is the subject,and which verb it should agree with, cross
out everything inside the commas:
The subject is the only noun in front of the crossed-out
sandwich; the verb we're looking for is the only remaining verb in the
sentence. we were able to see clearly that Azad, singular proper noun, is
the subject of the sentence, not his students. Thus, Azad was at
the studio
Incorrect: Azad, accompanied by his
students, were at the studio.
Correct: Azad, accompanied by his
students, was at the studio.
Not all subject-verb agreement questions will be
"sandwiched", like the last two
examples – theBank exam test writers have many kinds of tricks
up their sleeves. Regardless of the form of the sentence, it is always crucial
to keep track of the subject and verb.
Here's another form that subject-verb agreement questions can
take:
Example:His mastery of
several sports and the social graces make him
a sought-after prom date.
This sentence, like the two "sandwich" questions,
tries to distract you from the singular subject by inserting plural nouns just
before the verb. These questions can be more difficult, because there are no
conveniently-placed commas to tell you what to cross out, but, once you've
handled that, you can apply the same tactic used with the "sandwich"
questions. In this case,the phrase to be crossed out is "of several sports
and the social graces":
Incorrect: His mastery of
several sports and the social graces make him a
sought-after prom date.
Correct: His mastery of
several sports and the social graces makes him a
sought-after promdate.
2. Collective nouns, such as family, majority, audience, and
committee
are singular when they act in a collective fashion or
represent one group. They are plural when the members
of the collective body act as individuals. Collective nouns will
usually be singular in Sentence Correction sentences.
Example:A majority of the shareholders wants the
merger.
This sentence is grammatically correct – but confusing. To
determine whether a confusingnoun requires a singular or plural verb, it might
be helpful to visualize what's actually going o in the sentence. Is the
sentence talking about something that acts as a singular entity? Or
is I talking about the individual elements within that entity?
In the sentence here, there is no indication that the sentence
is referring to the individuals within the majority. The
"majority" acts as one – as a singular entity - and therefore
requires a singular verb, "wants."
A majority of the
shareholders wants the merger
The flock of birds is flying south.
Again, the "flock of birds" is referred to as a
singular group – we're not talking about eacbird's direction
of flight, but the direction of the flock as a whole - thus it requires the
singular verb "is," not the plural verb "are."
The team are always fighting amongst themselves.
This is an example of a collective noun that requires a plural
verb. You will not see this very often on the Bank exam, but it's
useful to illustrate the necessity of reading the entire sentence and
visualizing what it describes: while 'team' is often used as a singular
collective noun, in this case, the sentence describes the fighting that occurs between
the individual members of the team. "Team" therefore refers
to several individual members, and requires a plural verb,
"are," as a result.
The team are always
fighting amongst themselves
The key to these questions is simplicity: recognize the collective
noun, visualize what's going on in the sentence, and proceed. These questions
are included in the Bank exam not bec they are especially difficult, but
because test writers expect most students to be unfamiliar with the rules
governing collective nouns. If you are, then you're already ahead of the game.
3. Phrases separated by and are plural; phrases separated by or,
or nor are singular.
This is a hard-and-fast rule. Memorize it.
Ted, John, I – are going
Because the names – Ted, John, I - are separated by the word
"and", the plural form of
the verb is used. Notice that this is a very straightforward
grammatical construction: the subject is plural because it refers
to more than one person (or place, or thing, or event), an plural nouns require
plural verbs.
Example:Neither ted nor john is
going.
Because the names are separated by the word "nor", the
singular form of the verb is used. This
construction is the more complicated of the two it looks very much
like the 'and' construction, but means the opposite.
The sentence tells us that Ted is not going, and John is not going either.
Since neither one of the two is going, we must use a singular
verb. If this seems confusing, think of the term "no
one": would you say "no one are going"? Or "no one is going"?
The latter is clearly correct. How can
"nothing" be plural?
4. Neither and either always take singular verbs when acting as
the subject of a
sentence.
When applied, this construction often strikes people as
incorrect. It is not incorrect, but it is one of the grammatical conventions of
written English that cannot be reasoned out fro
scratch.
You must become familiar with this rule: memorize it,
and use it.
Example:Neither of the rosebushes is as
pretty as it was last year
In this sentence, "neither" is the subject, not the
plural noun "rosebushes". "Neither" takes the singular verb
"is".
Example:Either of us is capable
of doing the work.
.
In this sentence, the word "either" can be thought of
as an abbreviation of the phrase "either one". Construed in this
manner, it becomes quite clear that "us" is not the subject of the
sentence – "either" is. The sentence therefore requires the singular
verb "is"
.
5. Neither/nor and either/or are a special case. If two subjects
are joined by or or nor, the verb should agree with the subject that is closer
to it.
If the conjunction nor appears in a sentence with neither; or
the
conjunction or with either, then the "neither/either"
rule as stated above no longer
applies. In these constructions,
"neither" and "either" function as conjunctions, working in
pairs with "nor" and "or" to join two subjects in the
sentence. When this occurs, the verb agrees with whichever subject is closer to
it.
This rule must also be memorized.
Example:Neither of the superviser nor the
staff members were able to claim the distressed client.
This sentence contains two subjects: "supervisor," and
"staff members." Because they are joined by the correlative
conjunction "neither/nor," the verb agrees with the subject closest
to it: "staff members," which is plural. The plural verb
"were" is therefore correct
Example:Either the parents or the
child is going to talk the headmaster.
This example is identical, grammatically, to the one above,
except that the correlative
conjunction joining the subjects is "either/or." The
verb must therefore agree with the subject closest to it, which is
"child," a singular noun. The proper verb form is the singular,
"is."
Remember to apply this rule only when both items of the pairs
"neither/nor" and
"either/or" are present in the sentence.
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6. Be careful to choose the right subject in sentences in which
the verb precedes the subject.
In some sentences you encounter, it may be difficult to discern
which of several nouns is the subject. Nouns can function as subjects or
objects, and we usually rely on their placement in the sentence to determine
which is which. Such sentences follow the patternSubject —Verb — Object.
Example:The cat ate my homework
Here is an example:This sentence is straightforward: because the
first noun in the sentence, cat, is
followed by an active verb, ate, we
know that the cat is performing the action indicated by the verb, and is therefore
the subject of the sentence.
Homework is the object Some sentences,
however, will stray from this pattern. When all nouns in the sentence follow
the verb, it can sometimes be very difficult to figure out which of those nouns
is the subject.
Incorrect: There is many
reasons why he can't help you.
Here, there are two verbs (there is and help) and
three nouns (reasons,he, and you).
Sandwiched between the first and second verbs are two nouns;
another noun follows the second verb. If we look carefully at the sentence, we
may notice that the clause
"he can't helpyou"
follows the traditional pattern, in which I would be the
subject. We may
therefore be tempted to decide that I is the
subject of the sentence as a whole. However, why I
can't help you is in fact a subordinate clause, or dependent clause, and
functions here as direct object.
Correct: There are many
reasons why I can't help you.
The subject is the only noun that exists outside of the
subordinate clause: "reasons." It is plural, and thus requires a
plural verb, "are."
Final Tips
A quick summary of how to recognize subject-verb
agreement errors. Look for:
A subject and verb separated by superfluous nouns ("the
sandwich")
Collective nouns like majority, audience, family…
Phrases separated by conjunctions like and, nor, neither
Other confusing nouns like data/datum
compairons
You should only compare things that can be logically
compared. Faulty or nonsensical comparisons account for a significant
number of errors in BANK EXAMS Sentence Correction questions. Most of
these errors relate to a very simple idea that you probably learned
in kindergarten: you can't compare apples to oranges. You are
entirely welcome, however, to compare apples to apples, or a long
sweater to a long coat, or even the baking of apple turnovers to
the baking of pineapple turnovers. That is, on the BANK EXAMS, you want
to compare only those things that are grammatically or logically similar. For
instance,
you can't logically compare a person ("Joe") to a
quality ("purple"), or an item ("a banana") to
a group ("the NYPD"). You have to compare one
individual to another individual, one quality to another quality, or one group
to another group.
Often, the comparison will sound as though it's acceptable, but
will be missing a few necessary words:
Incorrect: The view from this
apartment is not nearly as spectacular as from that mountain lodge.
If you read it quickly, this sentence makes perfect sense: the
view from the apartment is
being compared to the view from the mountain lodge. But if you
look more closely, you'll see that the sentence actually compares the
view from the apartment to something about the
lodge — but what about it?
The view from this apartment is not nearly as
spectacular as from that
mountain lodge.
The comparison needs to be clarified.
Just like misplaced modifier questions, comparison questions
can't be judged by the ear
alone: even though you might understand what the writer is
trying to say, trying doesn't cut I on the BANK EXAMS. You have to make sure
the sentence actually says what it means the say. Here's the correct version:
The view from this apartment is
not nearly as spectacular as the one from that
mountain lodge.
The insertion of two little words - "the one" - makes
this sentence grammatically correct,
because "the view from" now has a partner in
comparison: "the one from." An alternative would be to repeat
"the view (from)," instead of "the one (from)," in the
latter portion.
Incorrect: The view from this
apartment is not nearly as spectacular as from that
mountain lodge.
Correct: The view from this
apartment is not nearly as spectacular as the one
from that mountain lodge.
Correct: The view from this
apartment is not nearly as spectacular as the
view from that mountain lodge.
Let's look at another example.
Shakespeare's plays are different from any other playwrights of
his era because they exhibit an exceptional mastery of verse.
Once again, the sentence sounds ok; but it actually compares
Shakespeare's plays to
other playwrights: an illogical comparison.
Shakespeare's plays are
different from those of any other playwrights of his
era because they exhibit an exceptional mastery of verse
How can we fix it? By inserting a few choice words that clarify
the nature of the comparison:
Shakespeare's plays are
different from those of any
other playwrights of his era because they exhibit an exceptional
mastery of verse
Like the phrase "the one from" in the last example,
the phrase "those of" in this example
makes it very clear that Shakespeare's plays are being compared
to other
playwrights' plays – not other playwrights.
Incorrect: Shakespeare's plays are
different from any other playwrights of his
era because they exhibit an exceptional mastery of verse.
Correct: Shakespeare's plays are
different from those of any other playwrights of his
era because they exhibit an exceptional mastery of verse.
You should look out for key comparison words, such as:
like
less than
that of
as
more than
those of
compared to
other
Comparisons are actually a special instance of parallelism. A
number of comparison-specific constructions call for you to always express
ideas in parallel form. These constructions
include:
Either m or n
Neither m nor n
Not only m but
also m or n can stand for as little as one word, or as much as an entire
clause, but in every case the grammatical structure of m or n must
be identical. For example, the sentence Either drinking or
to eat will do violates the rule by mismatching verb forms:
This is a comparison, and requires parallelism. Both verbs must
be in the same form: but as they're not currently, one must be adjusted.
Both verbs are now in the –ing form. Though in
many cases of parallelism either verb form is fine, for Either/Or comparisons
such as this one, both verbs must be in the –ing form.
Here's another example, using Neither/Nor:
Neither an interest in history nor to be adept in a foreign
language is going to help you learn to sing.
This sentence lists two talents one could possess, in a
neither/or format. They are not,
however, in the same form.
Neither an interest in history
nor to be adept in a
foreign language is going to help you learn to sing.
In this sentence, a noun is compared to a verb. Though it's a
different kind of mistake than the missing-information and verb-form
errors we've looked at, it should be dealt with in the same way: by shifting
one of the forms to match the other.
Neither an interest in history
nor an adeptness in a
foreign language is going to help you learn to sing.
Both phrases are now in the same form: "an interest in"
and "an adeptness in". In this
instance, the verb had to be changed to match the noun, instead
of the other way around, because "to be" verbs don't belong in
comparison (either/or, neither/nor) sentences.
Incorrect: Neither an
interest in history nor to be
adept in a foreign language is going to help you
learn to sing.
Correct: Neither an
interest in history nor an
adeptness in a foreign language is going to help
you learn to sing.
If you're confused about whether a comparison is correct, check
to see whether the
comparison is both logical (according to the standards of BANK
EXAMS English) and
grammatical.
Examples
1. Jerry gives less to
charity than any other church member.
As this sentence is
constructed, it's impossible to tell whether Jerry gives less to
charity than any other
church member does, or if he gives less money to charity than
he gives to any other
church member. But since it's probably unlikely that Jerry gives
money to other church
members, you want to clarify that the comparison is between
what Jerry gives to the
church, and what any other church member gives to the
church. The simplest way
to fix this is to add a "does" after "church member".
"Does"
stands in for
"gives to the church", and the statement now directly compares what
Jerry gives to what
other church members give. (Note: if Jerry were to give
something quantifiable,
like dollars then it would be, "Jerry gives fewer dollars..."
instead of less.)
2. The sports writer
questioned the skill of basketball players compared to tennis
players.
This sentence compares
"the skill of basketball players" to "tennis players"
themselves – not their
skill. As in the example above, a short phrase – in this case,
"that of" -
will suffice in making the proper comparison clear. The correct sentence
should read: The sports
writer questioned the skill of basketball players compared t
Modifiers
Modifiers are words, phrases, or clauses that provide extra
information about other words, phrases, or clauses. Adjectives (the red car, the happy child) are modifiers, as are adverbs
(he runs quickly). Adjectives modify nouns; adverbs modify verbs or
adjectives
.
Sometimes, however,
modifiers are groups of words. They serve the same function as
adjectives and adverbs;
they're just a bit more lengthy. But because they're longer, they have the
potential to be very confusing, and therefore appear quite often on the bba and mba test exam
and The list of common modifier errors, and how to handle them,
will begin with adjective and adverbs, and then move on to phrases clauses.
1.
Errors in the Use of Adjectives and Adverbs.
Having read the sentence
and identified a descriptive word, you should then try to
determine whether it is
an adjective or an adverb.
1. An adjective describes a noun or pronoun and answers the questions: how many,
which one, what kind?
She is a good tennis
player. (What kind of tennis
player?) This is an easy
exercise. (What kind of exercise?)
2. An adverb describes either a verb or an adjective and answers the questions:
when,
where, how, why, in what
manner, and to what extent?
She plays tennis
well. (She plays tennis
how?) This exercise is relatively easy. (How
easy?)
An easy way to identify
adverbs, or to distinguish them from adjectives, is to look at the
ending. Most adverbs are
formed by adding –ly to the adjective, such as: He worked
quickly.
However, there are a few
exceptions that you should memorize, if you're not already
familiar with them.
Exceptions
The following irregular
adverbs do not end in —ly.
Adjective Adverb
early
early
fast
fast
good
much
hard
little
late
hard
hardly(means nagetive mening)
late
lately(means nagetive meaning)
After you've identified the word as an adjective or adverb, try
to determine whether
it is used correctly. Look at
the sentence below:
She is a real good swimmer.
This sentence contains a
word modifying a noun, and another word modifying an adjective. Are the
modifying words used correctly? Break the sentence into parts:
The word good modifiers swimmer. Good is an adjective, and adjectives modify nouns. No
error there. But notice the word real, used to modify the adjective good. Real is an
adjective — only adverbs modify adjectives.
The correct sentence
properly replaces the adjective real with the adverb really.
Note the difference: really is real with an
—ly tacked on.
Incorrect: The new student speaks bad.
Correct: The new student speaks badly.
This sentence contains a
word modifying a noun, and another word modifying a verb. In
both versions, the
adjective "new" is used to modify the noun "student," which
is correct. In the incorrect sentence, the word "bad" is used to
modify the verb "speaks". But "bad" is an adjective, and
adjectives cannot modify verbs. The correct sentence properly replaces the
adjective "bad" with the adverb "badly".
2. Errors of Adjectives with Sense Verbs.
The following verbs
require adjective modifiers:
sound
look
smell
taste
feel
seem
These verbs are all "sense verbs," or verbs that
describe someone's sensation or
feeling or perception. Unlike other verbs, they require adjective, not adverb,
modifiers.
*same
here
Incorrect: The strawberry shortcake tastes deliciously.
Correct: The strawberry shortcake tastes delicious.
Sense verbs convey
personal opinions, thoughts, and perceptions in an inherently
subjective manner. The
sentence "The strawberry shortcake tastes delicious" has
essentially the same
meaning as "The strawberry shortcake tastes delicious to me"
or "I
think the strawberry shortcake tastes delicious."
Because each sentence describes the
attributes of the
shortcake as seen through the eyes (and mouth) of some observer, the
modifier should be
identical in all three sentences: the delicious shortcake. When a
sense verb is sandwiched between a noun and a modifier, the modifier should
agree with the noun.
Some sense verb
modifiers are commonly misused in speech. Be especially careful with these:
just because they sound right doesn't mean they are right. Sometimes these
errors arise from the misinterpretation, or gratuitous application, of a popular
grammar rule. Here' a common example:
After she returned from
the three-week vacation, she looked very well.
How many times have you
heard someone say, "He looks well"? It probably sounds fine,
but in fact, this
sentence is a comment on the visual abilities of the man in question; it
means something like,
"He's skilled at looking." Pretty funny – but why is it wrong?
Think about it. Looking
at the incorrect sentence, if you place an adverb directly after a
verb, then the adverb
modifies the verb. But we don't want to describe a verb - we
want to describe a woman who just came back from vacation.
"She" is a
pronoun, and pronouns (which stand in for nouns) are modified with adjectives.
Thus the correct sentence fixes our modification problem by replacing the
adverb "well" with the adjective "good".
Incorrect: After she returned from the three-week
vacation, she looked very well.
Correct: After she returned from the three-week
vacation, she looked very good.
Note: Unlike "She
looks well," the phrase "She is well" can properly be used to
mean
the equivalent of
"She is healthy". Why is this
3. Location of Modification – Misplaced Modifiers
What's wrong with this
sentence?
Finally thinking
clearly, the book was able to be understood by Rebecca.
The meaning of the
sentence seems clear enough: that Rebecca finally understood the
book after she started
thinking clearly.
But what does the
sentence actually say? If you look more closely at the
sentence, you'll see that, because of the placement of certain words, the
sentence makes the book, not Rebecca, the subject of
the sentence: which makes it sound as if the book was thinking clearly, not
Rebecca. That's kind of funny – how can a book think clearly? - and not what we
meant at all. So what went wrong?
If you'll recall, modifiers are often adjectives or adverbs, as
covered above. But
Modifiers can also be groups of words – phrases or clauses –
that act as one to describe another part of the sentence. Like adjectives and
adverbs, these multiple-word modifiers must be placed as close as possible to
the word or group of words they'r modifying: those that fail to observe this
rule are called misplaced modifiers.
Misplaced modifiers can
be highly deceptive - and are therefore extremely common on the BBA,MBA EXAMS.
Because we know what the sentence means to say, it's easy to
miss placement errors unless we're looking for them.
Let's look again at the
example above:
Finally thinking clearly, the book was able to be understood by Rebecca.
Even though the modifier
is followed immediately by "the book," we might very easily
assume that because a
book can't think, we can overlook its placement in the sentence, as the phrase
"Finally thinking clearly" must refer to Rebecca.
But the BANK EXAMS isn't testing our ability to understand mangled sentences;
it's testing our understanding of English grammar. And according to the rules
of English grammar, a modifier must always be
placed as close as possible to the word it's modifying. Thus, this sentence
I incorrect because the modifier "Finally thinking clearly" is
not immediately followed by what it is modifying: that
is, "Rebecca".
Try this next example:
On arriving at the train
station, his friends greeted Jay and took him immediately
to his speaking
engagement in Springfield.
Once again, it probably
sounds fine at first glance. But break it down, and check to make sure that
modifiers (or objects being modified) are placed where they belong.
First find the modifying phrase: look for a descriptive group of
words set off by a
comma or commas. Here, we have "On
arriving at the train station." After you've found the modifier, try to
figure out what word/s it should be modifying, and what word/s
it is
modifying: here,
"Jay" should be arriving at the train station, but the modifier is
followed
directly by the phrase
"his friends," which makes it sound like Jay's friends, not Jay
himself arrived at the train station. This is incorrect. Because the modifier
must be immediately followed by the word/s being modified, the sentence can be
correctly written as: When rewritten this way, the modifier "On arriving
at the train station" is followed directly by
"Jay", the
person whom the modifier was meant to describe.
Incorrect: On arriving at the train station, his
friends greeted Jay and took him
immediately to his
speaking engagement in Springfield.
Correct: On arriving at the train station, Jay was greeted by his friends, who immediately took him to his speaking
engagement in Springfield.
Misplaced modifiers
won't always occur at the beginning of sentences: any descriptive
phrase or clause is a
potential misplaced modifier. Just make sure the modifying phrase or clause
is as close as possible to the word/s being modified, and
watch for these common indicators:
1. That/which clauses,
especially ones that come at the end of sentences
2. Sentences beginning or
ending with descriptive phrases
3. Don't forget!
4. Note that its is a
possessive of it, and it's is the
contraction of it and is.
