Noun-based Error Spotting Tricks

1. Proper noun: 

The name of person, movie, serial, book, subject, game, disese, country etc. always takes singular verb.

• Person name: John keats, Meena, Somaksh......
• Book Name: The Stars' Tennis Balls, The Hunger Games....
• Disease Name: Measles, Mumps, Diabetes.....
• Subject Name: Physics, Mathematics, History....
• Singular verb: is, was, has, v.1st (s or es)

EXAMPLE

• His Dark Materials trilogy are a famous novel.(×)
• His Dark Materials trilogy is a famous novel. (√)
• Yaadon Ki Baaraat were the first movie of Aamir Khan. (×)
• Yaadon Ki Baaraat was the first movie of Aamir Khan. (√)

Nouns with Singular Verb

Certain nouns that indicate measurement and amount take a singular verb.

EXAMPLE

• 15 miles are not a big distance.(×)
• 15 miles is not a big distance.(√)
• There are 500 kg. potato in the godown. (×)
• There is 500 kg. potato in the godown. (√)

2. Uncountable nouns: 

Information, scenery, luggage, furniture, mischief, vacation, evidence, fuel, food, alphabet, machinery, poetry, news, advice... etc always take a singular verb and never use in plural form.

EXAMPLE

• They gave me some informations.(×)
• They gave me some information.(√)
• The information of this girl are right.(×)
• The information of this girl is right.(√)
• He gave me advices.(×)
• He gave me advice.(√)
• The advice that you gave me were very useful. (×)
• The advice that you gave me was very useful. (√)

Wrong use: He bought 3 irons/ 2 sugars/3 furnitures/ 3 fuels/ 4 breads/ 5 ice cream.....
Right use: 2 plates of food/ 3 items of furniture/ 8 kg. sugar/ 2 pieces of bread/......

3. Collective noun: 

Cattle, people, vermin, gentry, poultry, children, offspring, majority... etc always take plural verb and never used in plural form.

EXAMPLE

• The cattle has entered the ground now. (×)
• The cattle have entered the ground now. (√)
• The gentries of this village are in the function. (×)
• The gentry of this village are in the function. (√)
• The offspring of Sheena is celebrating their parent's 25th anniversary. (×)
• The offspring of Sheena are celebrating their parent's 25th anniversary. (√)

4. Collective nouns: 

Army, council, committee, police, jury, audience, batch, union, gang, panel, herd, crowd, army......
Singular verb is used when these are used as a body (united/ combined)
Plural verb is used when these are used as individuals or members (divide/ sepreate/ spread)

EXAMPLE

• The police work honestly for us.(×)
• The police works honestly for us.(√)

(Here we are talking about the whole department of police so we used singular verb.)

• The police has caught a thief.(×)
• The police have caught a thief.(√)

(Here we are talking about some police men so we used plural verb.)

• The army are dedicated to the country.(×)
• The army is dedicated to the country.(√)
• The army has shot the terrorists.(×)
• The army have shot the terrorists.(√)

6. Possessive case: 's (Apostrophe s)

 's always use with living things, general idea, time and country.

EXAMPLE

• Neha's hair is very silky.(√)
• Today's newspaper is on the table.(√)
• Time's value can't be ignored in life.(√)

Never use double 's in a sentence.

EXAMPLE

• My teacher's son's job is in a computer company.(×)
• The job of My teacher's son is in a computer company.(√)

When 's is used after a plural noun and a word of which s is in its end then use only (').

EXAMPLE

• Writers's ideas (×)
• Writers' ideas (√)
• John keats's poem (×)
• John keats' poem (√)
• He is writting a book on soldier's life in the military. (×)
• He is writting a book on soldiers' life in the military. (√)

(Here we used soldiers' not soldier's because he is writting a book not a soldier's life but all soldiers' life.)

Males', females' is not use with non living things. Ladies', gents', boys', girls', men's, women's is used for non living things.
EXAMPLE
Males' perfume is costly enough.(×)
Gents' perfume is costly enough.(√)

7. Compound noun: 

A noun made up of two or more existing words.
's should be added only with the last word.

EXAMPLE

• Lower division clerk's behaviour (√)
• Sister in law's mother (√)
• Maid-servant's work (√)