Pronouns & Determiners

'Between' is a preposition — it must be followed by object-case pronouns. 'I' is subject case. The correct form is 'between you and me'. This is one of the five most repeated NDA Spotting Errors. The trap: 'you and I' sounds polite, but after any preposition (between, for, with, to, by) only object case is correct — me, him, her, us, them.

'Officers' is in apposition to the subject of 'must maintain'. When a pronoun precedes a noun that is the subject, use the subject case. 'Us' is object case — wrong. Correct: 'We officers must maintain discipline'. Test: remove the noun — 'We must maintain' is correct; 'Us must maintain' is clearly wrong.

'Myself' cannot be used as a plain substitute for 'I' or 'me'. Since 'The Colonel and ___' is the subject of 'attended', the subject case is needed. Correct: 'The Colonel and I attended.' 'Myself' is only valid reflexively ('I hurt myself') or emphatically ('I myself checked it'). Using 'myself' as a subject pronoun is always wrong.

The sentence 'He wrote the report' is complete without 'himself'. It adds emphasis — stress that he personally did it — but is grammatically removable. That is the defining feature of an emphatic pronoun. Compare: 'He hurt himself' — reflexive, the action returns to the subject, cannot be removed. Same form, different function.

'Neither' as a pronoun is singular and takes a singular verb. 'Is' is correct. 'Neither of the soldiers was present' — not 'were'. The rule: 'neither' and 'either' used alone as pronouns always take singular verbs. Students see the plural noun 'routes' and make the verb plural — ignoring the actual subject 'neither'.

'That' correctly introduces a defining relative clause for things — 'The mission that we planned'. Option A: 'which' for a person is wrong — use 'who'. Option C: structural error — 'whose performance was noted' is needed. Option D: 'whom' as a subject relative for a thing is doubly wrong — use 'which', and 'followed' needs an object, so 'which they followed' is correct.

'Praised' is a transitive verb — its objects must be in object case. 'He' and 'she' are subject-case pronouns. The correct form is 'both him and her'. Test: 'The general praised him' — correct. 'The general praised he' — clearly wrong. When two pronouns follow a transitive verb, both must be in object case.

'This is my pen' — 'my' is a possessive adjective (determiner) placed before the noun 'pen'. 'Belongs to her' — 'her' is a possessive pronoun or object pronoun used without a following noun. Option A 'my … her' is correct: 'my' before 'pen' (adjective use) and 'her' after 'to' (object/possessive use). Option D 'mine … hers' would work if rewritten as 'This is mine; that one is hers'.

'None' is used for three or more — 'None of the three options is suitable'. 'Neither' is used for exactly two — not three. 'Any' would change the meaning to asking whether any one works (positive sense). 'Both' refers to two only. 'None … is' correctly uses singular verb with none in formal/NDA English.

'Each' is always singular — it requires 'has completed' and 'his/her training'. 'Have completed their' has two errors: plural verb after 'each' and plural pronoun. Strip the modifier: 'Each … have completed their' — both errors are clear. Correct: 'Each of the soldiers in the three companies has completed his/her training.'

'Who do you think is responsible?' — 'who' is the subject of the embedded clause 'is responsible'. The intervening 'do you think' does not change this. Option B: 'Whom is coming' — subject position needs 'who'. Option C: 'Who did you select' — 'whom' is correct as object of 'select'. Option D: 'Whom gave the orders' — subject position needs 'who'. Only A is correct.

'Let' takes the object case — 'let me', 'let him', 'let us'. Therefore 'let you and me' is correct, not 'let you and I'. 'I' is subject case and cannot follow the causative verb 'let'. Similarly: 'Let him and me go', 'Let her and us decide'. This parallels 'between you and me' — prepositions and causatives both require object case.

'Yours' is a possessive pronoun used without a following noun — 'The decision is entirely yours.' 'It' refers to the singular 'decision'. 'Your' would need a noun after it ('your decision'). 'Them' is plural and cannot refer to the singular 'decision'. 'Yours … it' is correct: standalone possessive pronoun followed by singular object pronoun.

'Either of the two plans is workable' — 'either' for exactly two + singular verb. Option A: 'either of the three' — 'either' applies to two; use 'any' for three or more. Option B: with 'either…or', the verb agrees with the nearer subject — 'men' is nearer (plural) → 'were responsible'. Option D: 'Either student have' — 'either' takes singular verb: 'has submitted'.

After the verb 'to be' in formal/written English, the subject case is required: 'It is I who has made the mistake.' 'Me' is object case — incorrect after 'to be'. 'Not they' is correct (subject case in the elliptical 'not they [who made it]'). The error is 'It is me' — formal grammar requires 'It is I'.

'Each soldier' — singular subject, referring to soldiers one by one. 'He' — correct singular pronoun referring back to 'each soldier'. 'Every' and 'each' are singular and take singular verbs and pronouns. Option A: 'Every soldier … all won' mixes singular/plural inconsistently. Option B: 'each of them' is awkward. Option C: 'All … every' is structurally inconsistent. 'Each … he' is the clean parallel.

This sentence has no error. 'One another' is correctly used for three or more — a committee has multiple members. 'Each other' is for exactly two; 'one another' is for three or more. The verb 'blamed' is correct. NDA sometimes presents correct sentences to test whether students can correctly identify 'no error'.

'Those sorts of problems' — 'those' (plural) correctly agrees with 'sorts' (plural), and 'problems' (plural) is correct after 'sorts of'. Option A: 'These kind' — 'kind' is singular, so 'this kind' or 'these kinds'. Option B: 'This type of errors' — should be 'this type of error' (singular after 'type of'). Option D: 'these sorts … is' — plural subject needs 'are'. Only C is fully correct.

'All the candidates passed' — 'all' with plural noun and plural verb. 'Only a few of them cleared' — 'a few' (positive: some, not many) with pronoun 'them' referring to 'candidates'. Option B: 'Every' requires singular — 'Every candidate passed'. Option C: 'Each' also requires singular. Option D: 'few' without 'a' means 'hardly any' — inconsistent with passing the test. 'A few' (positive) is the correct choice.

'Hardly' pairs with 'when', not 'than'. The correct correlative is 'Hardly … when'. 'No sooner' pairs with 'than'. Using 'than' after 'hardly' is the classic NDA error. Correct: 'Hardly had he entered the room when the lights went off.' Note also that 'Hardly had he entered' shows correct inversion — auxiliary before subject.