Enforcement Officer / Accounts Officer (EO/AO) 2020 recruitment test, advertisement 421. Transcribed from the Commission's own booklet (series A, NMJX-U-GTA); answer as per the official UPSC final answer key. This question is in Part A. Answer last reviewed 24 August 2026.

Directions : Each item in this section has a sentence with three underlined parts labelled (a), (b) and (c). Read each sentence to find out whether there is any error in any underlined part and indicate your response in the Answer Sheet against the corresponding letter i.e., (a) or (b) or (c). If you find no error, your response should be indicated as (d). Neither the servants (a) | nor the clerk (b) | has done this. (c) | No error (d)

(a)Neither the servants
(b)nor the clerk
(c)has done this.
(d)No error

Answer

Why

Correct — D, (d) No error.

The sentence is ‘Neither the servants nor the clerk has done this.’ It tests the agreement of the verb when two subjects are joined by the correlative pair ‘neither … nor’, and it is correct as printed.

The rule is the rule of proximity. When subjects are joined by neither … nor, either … or, or not only … but also, the verb agrees with the subject NEARER to it. Here the nearer subject is ‘the clerk’, which is singular, so the singular verb ‘has done’ is right. Had the two been the other way round — ‘Neither the clerk nor the servants …’ — the nearer subject would be plural and the sentence would need ‘have done’.

The other two parts are sound as well. In part (a), ‘neither’ is the correlative conjunction opening the pair and is correctly followed in part (b) by ‘nor’; the partner of ‘neither’ is ‘nor’ and never ‘or’, just as the partner of ‘either’ is ‘or’ and never ‘nor’. Nothing in the rule requires the two subjects joined to be of the same number, so a plural followed by a singular is perfectly regular.

This is the first item of the ‘Spotting Errors’ block and it carries the Directions for all five. Those Directions do something worth noticing: the letters (a), (b) and (c) mark the three underlined parts of the sentence AND are the answer choices, and (d) is the separate choice ‘No error’. That is why the sentence appears twice on this card, once as the stem and once split into the four options. An option here is a stretch of the sentence, not a statement about it.

Why the others are wrong

(a)Neither the servants — There is no error in this part, so marking it would be wrong. ‘Neither’ is doing its proper work as the first half of the correlative pair neither … nor, introducing the first of two subjects, and ‘the servants’ is a plural noun phrase that is entirely regular after it. Candidates sometimes suspect this part because the plural sits next to a singular verb further along the sentence, but the verb does not agree with this subject at all — it agrees with the one nearest to it, which is ‘the clerk’. A useful check is to read the two halves apart: ‘the servants have not done this’ and ‘the clerk has not done this’ are both good English, and the correlative simply joins them.
(b)nor the clerk — There is no error here either. ‘Nor’ is the correct partner for ‘neither’, and the pairing is fixed: neither goes with nor, either goes with or. Writing ‘neither … or’ would be an error, and so would ‘either … nor’, but neither mistake has been made in the printed sentence. The singular ‘the clerk’ in this position is also correct, and it is in fact the part of the sentence that governs the verb, since the proximity rule looks to the nearer of the two subjects. A candidate who has spotted that the two subjects differ in number has noticed something real, but the difference is permitted.
(c)has done this. — This is the part most often marked in error, and it is correct. The verb is singular because the subject nearest to it, ‘the clerk’, is singular, which is exactly what the proximity rule requires with neither … nor. The instinct to write ‘have done’ comes from seeing the plural ‘servants’ earlier in the sentence and letting it govern the verb, but a correlative construction does not add its two subjects together the way ‘and’ does: ‘the servants and the clerk have done this’ takes a plural verb, while ‘neither the servants nor the clerk has done this’ takes a singular one. The tense is sound too — the present perfect ‘has done’ suits an action whose result stands at the present moment.

Concept

The item is about subject–verb agreement in correlative constructions, which is the single most productive grammar point in spotting-errors sets.

The governing principle is the RULE OF PROXIMITY: with either … or, neither … nor, and not only … but also, the verb agrees with the subject nearer to it. Neither the officers nor the manager was informed. Neither the manager nor the officers were informed. Either the peon or the clerks have the key. Either the clerks or the peon has the key. Careful writers often arrange the sentence so that the plural comes second, because the plural verb that results sounds less awkward, but both orders are correct.

Set beside it the rules that govern the neighbouring cases, since an examiner may use any of them. Subjects joined by ‘and’ normally take a plural verb, unless the two nouns name one person or one thing — bread and butter is his only food. A singular subject followed by ‘with’, ‘along with’, ‘as well as’, ‘besides’, ‘in addition to’ or ‘together with’ keeps its singular verb, because those phrases are not conjunctions: the Secretary, along with his officers, was present. ‘Each’, ‘every’, ‘either’ and ‘neither’ used alone as pronouns or determiners are singular: each of the officers has, neither of them was.

Also worth fixing: ‘neither’ pairs only with ‘nor’ and ‘either’ only with ‘or’, and both pairs join two items. For more than two, English uses ‘none of’ or ‘not any of’.

This item opens the ‘Spotting Errors’ block, the last of the four sets in Part A, and it carries the Directions that govern Q16 to Q20. The layout is different from anything else on the paper: one sentence is divided into three underlined parts labelled (a), (b) and (c), and the candidate marks the part containing the error, or (d) for ‘No error’.

That means a letter is doing two jobs at once — naming a position in the sentence and naming an answer choice — and it is the one place in this booklet where that double duty is legitimate. The transcription splits the parts with a vertical bar to preserve where the underlining began and ended, because those boundaries decide the answer: an error belongs to whichever segment contains it.

A further point of method, and it is the one that separates careful candidates from the rest: ‘No error’ is a real answer and not a refuge. Two of the five items in this block are keyed to it. A candidate who assumes that every sentence must contain a fault will manufacture one, most often by applying a half-remembered rule to a construction that does not need it — which is precisely what happens on this sentence when the plural ‘servants’ is allowed to pull the verb.

Key facts

With subjects joined by neither … nor, either … or, or not only … but also, the verb agrees with the NEARER subject — the rule of proximity.
‘Neither’ pairs only with ‘nor’, and ‘either’ only with ‘or’; both pairs join two items, and for more than two English uses ‘none of’ or ‘not any of’.
Subjects joined by ‘and’ take a plural verb, unless the two nouns together name a single person or thing.
‘As well as’, ‘along with’, ‘together with’, ‘besides’ and ‘in addition to’ are not conjunctions: a singular subject followed by one of them keeps its singular verb.
Used alone, ‘each’, ‘every’, ‘either’ and ‘neither’ are singular — each of the officers has, neither of them was.
In this block the labels (a), (b) and (c) mark the three underlined parts of the sentence and are also the answer choices, while (d) is the separate choice ‘No error’.

Each segment checked, then the rule that governs the whole

(c) has done this — correct→The RULE OF PROXIMITY. With neither … nor, either … or and not only … but also, the verb agrees with the subject NEARER to it. The nearer subject is ‘the clerk’, which is singular, so the singular ‘has done’ is right. Reverse the two and ‘Neither the clerk nor the servants have done this’ would be needed instead.

(a) Neither the servants→Sound. ‘Neither’ is doing its proper work as the first half of the correlative pair, and a plural noun phrase after it is entirely regular. Nothing in the rule requires the two subjects joined to be of the same number.

(b) nor the clerk→Sound. The pairing is fixed — neither goes with nor, either goes with or. ‘Neither … or’ and ‘either … nor’ would both be errors, and neither mistake has been made in the printed sentence.

The neighbouring rules an examiner may use instead→Subjects joined by ‘and’ take a plural verb, unless the two nouns name one person or thing — bread and butter is his only food. ‘As well as’, ‘along with’, ‘together with’, ‘besides’ and ‘in addition to’ are NOT conjunctions, so a singular subject keeps its singular verb. Used alone, each, every, either and neither are singular.

What an option is in this block→The labels (a), (b) and (c) mark the three underlined parts of the sentence and are at the same time the answer choices, while (d) is the separate choice ‘No error’. An option here is a stretch of the sentence, not a statement about it.

Study next

Subject–verb agreement in full: proximity with correlatives, compound subjects with ‘and’, and the phrases that look like conjunctions but are not.Correlative conjunctions and their fixed partners: either/or, neither/nor, not only/but also, both/and, whether/or.Parallel structure after correlatives — placing the same part of speech after each half of the pair.Agreement with collective nouns, with ‘a number of’ against ‘the number of’, and with quantities treated as single amounts.Working a spotting-errors item segment by segment, and treating ‘No error’ as a genuine answer rather than a last resort.

Common traps

Letting the more distant plural subject govern the verb. In a neither … nor sentence the verb looks only to the subject next to it.
Assuming every sentence in this block must contain a fault. ‘No error’ is one of the four choices and is the answer on more than one item here.
Mixing the correlative partners. ‘Neither … or’ and ‘either … nor’ are both wrong, though neither mistake occurs in this sentence.
Adding the two subjects together as if they were joined by ‘and’. A correlative offers a choice between them rather than combining them.

Spotting-errors items on the EPFO papers concentrate on a small and predictable set of points: subject–verb agreement, prepositions attached to particular verbs, the articles a and an, tenses in reported speech and in time clauses, and the misuse of much, many, few and little. Expect one item in five to be keyed to ‘No error’, and expect at least one sentence built so that a familiar rule appears to be broken when it is not. Working through the three segments in order, and asking of each whether it contains a fault rather than whether it sounds unusual, is what keeps a candidate from inventing errors.

Related PYQs

EPFO_EOAO_2020_Q19Open & attempt →

I have (a) | much work (b) | to do. (c) | No error (d)

(a) I have
(b) much work
(c) to do.
(d) No error

Answer(d) No error

Another item in this block keyed to ‘No error’, where a construction that sounds unusual in speech is perfectly correct in writing.

EPFO_EOAO_2020_Q18Open & attempt →

Raju will be back home (a) | in an year (b) | after his stay abroad. (c) | No error (d)

(a) Raju will be back home
(b) in an year
(c) after his stay abroad.
(d) No error

Answer(b) in an year

An item in the same block where a fault is present, so that the two together show what the block is really asking the candidate to weigh.

Practice

practice — not a real PYQ
Neither the manager (a) | nor his assistants (b) | was present at the hearing. (c) | No error (d)
- (a)Neither the manager
- (b)nor his assistants
- (c)was present at the hearing.
- (d)No error
Answer(c) was present at the hearing. — with neither … nor the verb agrees with the nearer subject, and here the nearer subject is the plural ‘his assistants’, so the sentence needs ‘were present’. Parts (a) and (b) are correct, since ‘neither’ is properly paired with ‘nor’ and the two subjects joined may differ in number.
practice — not a real PYQ
Each of the officers (a) | have been given (b) | a separate room. (c) | No error (d)
- (a)Each of the officers
- (b)have been given
- (c)a separate room.
- (d)No error
Answer(b) have been given — ‘each’ is singular however plural the noun that follows ‘of’ may be, so the verb must be ‘has been given’. The plural ‘officers’ in part (a) is correct after ‘each of’, and part (c) is sound, since a separate room for each officer is what the sentence means to say.

Why