Can grammar be learnt from rules alone?

Rules take you most of the way in error spotting and sentence improvement, because those questions test a finite set of patterns — agreement, tense, prepositions, modifiers — and the same handful recur every cycle. What rules cannot fix is the ear for what sounds wrong, which comes from reading. Use this sheet to name the error you sense; use reading to sense it in the first place.

How many marks does grammar carry?

In banking prelims the English section is around thirty marks, of which error spotting, sentence improvement and cloze together are a large share, and all three reward the same grammar. In SSC CGL and CHSL the English paper is heavily grammar- and vocabulary-based, so this sheet covers proportionally more of those papers than of a banking one. Either way it is high-return, because the rules are finite and reused.

British or American spelling in these exams?

Indian government exams follow British conventions — "colour", "organise", "programme", "practise" as the verb and "practice" as the noun. American spellings are not usually marked wrong in isolation, but where a question tests a spelling it expects the British form, so it is the safer default to write and to recognise.

English grammar rules cheat sheet for error spotting and sentence correction

Error spotting, sentence improvement and cloze all test the same finite set of grammar rules, and the same handful recur every cycle. This page is those rules in one place, each paired with the specific pattern the exam builds around it, so revision is a matter of recognising the trap rather than rereading a grammar book. The full method for each question type is linked from the relevant section.

A word on what a sheet cannot do: the ear for what sounds wrong comes from reading, not from rules. Use this to name the error you sense; keep reading to sense it.

Subject–verb agreement

The most tested rule of all, because the exam hides the subject.

Pattern	Rule
Subject separated from verb by a phrase	verb agrees with the subject, not the nearest noun (“the box of apples is”)
Two subjects joined by and	plural verb
Subjects joined by or / nor / either…or	verb agrees with the nearer subject
Each, every, either, neither, everyone	singular verb
A number of	plural; the number of
Collective nouns (team, jury, government)	singular when acting as one, plural when as individuals
Uncountables (news, mathematics, information)	singular verb

The classic trap is the intervening phrase: “The quality of the products is poor”, not are. Find the real subject before the verb every time. More in error spotting and sentence correction.

Tense and sequence

Pattern	Rule
Past action before another past action	past perfect for the earlier one (“she had left before he arrived”)
Since / for with a time reference	present perfect or perfect continuous (“has lived here since 2010”)
Universal truth in reported speech	stays present tense
Two actions, one interrupting another	past continuous + past simple (“was reading when the bell rang”)
If + present, main clause	future (first conditional)

Conditionals

Type	If-clause	Main clause
First (real)	present simple	will + base verb
Second (unreal present)	past simple	would + base verb
Third (unreal past)	past perfect	would have + past participle

“If I were you” — the subjunctive were for hypotheticals, never was, is a favourite test.

Prepositions that are routinely tested

Word	Correct preposition
different	from
superior / inferior / senior / junior	to (not than)
composed	of
comprise	takes no preposition (“comprises ten members”, not comprises of)
married / engaged	to
capable	of
accompanied	by a person, with a thing
die	of a disease, from a wound

Articles

Rule	Example
a before a consonant sound, an before a vowel sound	a university, an hour, an MP
the for unique things and superlatives	the sun, the best
no article before uncountable/plural nouns used generally	“honesty is …”, “dogs are …”

The sound, not the letter, governs a/an: “a one-rupee coin” (w-sound), “an honest man” (silent h).

Pronouns

Pattern	Rule
Pronoun after a preposition	object form (“between you and me”, never I)
Pronoun as subject of a verb	subject form (“he is taller than I (am)”)
One …	followed by one’s, not his
Everyone / each / nobody	singular pronoun in formal usage
Reflexive (myself, himself)	only when the subject acts on itself, never as a plain subject

Modifiers and word order

Error	Fix
Dangling modifier	the modifier must sit next to the word it describes (“Walking home, I saw …”, not “the tree”)
Misplaced only	put only immediately before the word it limits
Adjective vs adverb	verbs are modified by adverbs (“drives carefully”, not careful)
Double comparative/superlative	never “more better” or “most easiest”

Degrees of comparison

Pattern	Rule
Comparing two	comparative + than (“the taller of the two”)
Comparing more than two	superlative (“the tallest of all”)
than any other	use with the comparative for a single item in a group (“taller than any other boy”)
Absolute adjectives (unique, perfect, complete)	not compared — no “more unique”

Parallelism

Items joined by and, or or a correlative must share the same grammatical form.

Correlatives pair fixed partners: either…or, neither…nor, not only…but also, both…and. Mixing them (“neither…or”) is a set error.
A list must stay in one form: “she likes reading, writing and painting”, not “reading, writing and to paint”.

Commonly confused words

Confused pair	Distinction
affect / effect	affect is the verb, effect the noun
principal / principle	principal = chief / head; principle = a rule
stationary / stationery	stationary = not moving; stationery = paper goods
its / it’s	its = belonging to it; it’s = it is
advice / advise	advice is the noun, advise the verb
lose / loose	lose = to misplace; loose = not tight

These recur in fill-in-the-blanks and vocabulary questions too — see fill in the blanks and vocabulary.

How to use this sheet

Read one section, then do error-spotting questions on that rule only. Isolated practice fixes a rule far faster than mixed sets, because you are looking for a named error rather than any error.
Keep a personal list of the ones you miss. Everyone has three or four blind spots; those, not the whole sheet, are your revision.
Then mix it. Once each rule is solid alone, a timed mock is the test — spotting the error is easy when you know which rule is being tested and hard when you do not, and only mixed practice trains the second skill.