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Playbook

Spotting Errors — Tense and verb form

16 q. Past-perfect vs simple-past, reported speech tense-shift, conditional-clause verb form. Tense backshift in reported speech is the most-tested.

questions in the bank
16
tagged HARD
0%
subtopic(s) covered
1
worked examples
1

When you’ll see it

An underlined verb in the wrong tense or wrong form for the surrounding sentence's time-frame.

How this question type works

16 q. The most-tested sub-pattern is reported-speech tense backshift: when the reporting verb (said, told, asked) is in past tense, the verb inside the reported clause shifts one tense back. 'He said he had taken the test' (past perfect) vs 'He said he took the test yesterday' (still wrong if 'yesterday' anchors the original speech).

Conditional-clause verb forms are second-most-tested. 'If I were' (subjunctive, hypothetical) vs 'If I was' (factual, past). Type-2 conditionals always use 'were' across all persons.

Past-perfect-vs-simple-past confusion: past perfect is for the earlier of two past events. 'When I arrived, he had left' — 'had left' is correct because the leaving happened *before* the arriving. 'He had left yesterday' (with a single past time-marker) is wrong.

The sub-skills

The rules and habits that decide whether you get this question right.

  • Reported-speech backshift

    Present → past, past → past perfect. Modals: can → could, may → might, will → would. 'Yesterday' becomes 'the day before' in the report.

  • Subjunctive in conditionals + wishes

    Type-2: 'If I were rich, I would travel'. Type-3: 'If I had studied, I would have passed'. 'I wish I were' (not 'was') — subjunctive after wish.

  • Past perfect for the earlier event

    Two past events: the earlier one takes past perfect, the later takes simple past. One past event = simple past, regardless.

1 worked example from the bank

Real past-year questions tagged to this playbook. Click to reveal options + solution.

Example 1Spotting ErrorsMODERATE
Directions (Q. Nos. 41 to 45): Each item in this section has a sentence with four underlined parts labeled (a), (b), (c) and (d). Read each sentence to find out whether there is any error in any underlined part. Indicate your response in the Answer Sheet accordingly.
When I saw Arnab‾\underline{\text{When I saw Arnab}} he said he‾\underline{\text{he said he}} had taken his‾\underline{\text{had taken his}} driving test yesterday‾\underline{\text{driving test yesterday}}.

[Q42 · Apr · 2026]

Traps to expect

Distractor shapes specific to this playbook. The page-wide Traps section covers the bank-level patterns.

  • Backshift with adverbial mismatch

    'When I saw Arnab, he said he had taken his driving test yesterday' — the backshift looks right, but 'yesterday' fights with the past-perfect anchor.

  • False subjunctive

    'If I was wrong, please correct me' — factual, not hypothetical, so 'was' IS correct here. Don't apply 'were' reflexively.

Drill every spotting errors — tense and verb form question

16 questions from the bank, scoped to the named subtopic.

Drill the 16 questions

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