The following is a structured syllabus of 40 major topics covering common grammatical errors in English, from basic to advanced levels. Each topic includes important subtopics for grammar study, error identification, sentence correction, academic writing, and competitive examinations such as TOEFL, IELTS, GRE, and university entrance tests.

1. Subject–Verb Agreement Errors

• Singular subject with plural verb

• Plural subject with singular verb

• Agreement with collective nouns

• Agreement with indefinite pronouns

• Agreement with compound subjects

• Agreement with intervening phrases

• Agreement with either...or and neither...nor

• Agreement with each, every, and one of

• Agreement with relative pronouns

• Agreement in inverted sentences

• Agreement with quantities, percentages, and measurements

• Agreement with uncountable nouns

2. Verb Tense Errors

• Incorrect present tense

• Incorrect past tense

• Incorrect future expressions

• Mixing past and present tenses

• Incorrect present perfect tense

• Incorrect past perfect tense

• Incorrect future perfect tense

• Confusion between simple and continuous forms

• Incorrect tense sequence

• Unnecessary tense shifts

• Incorrect tense in time clauses

• Incorrect tense with since and for

• Incorrect use of stative verbs in continuous forms

3. Verb Form Errors

• Incorrect base form

• Incorrect past form

• Incorrect past participle

• Incorrect present participle

• Irregular verb errors

• Incorrect verb forms after auxiliaries

• Incorrect verb forms after modal verbs

• Errors with do, does, and did

• Errors with have, has, and had

• Errors with be, being, and been

• Confusion between finite and non-finite verbs

4. Auxiliary Verb Errors

• Omission of auxiliary verbs

• Unnecessary auxiliary verbs

• Incorrect forms of be

• Incorrect forms of have

• Incorrect forms of do

• Double auxiliary errors

• Incorrect auxiliary placement

• Errors in negative constructions

• Errors in interrogative constructions

• Incorrect auxiliary use in short answers

5. Modal Verb Errors

• Incorrect use of can and could

• Incorrect use of may and might

• Incorrect use of shall and should

• Incorrect use of will and would

• Incorrect use of must

• Confusion between must and have to

• Incorrect modal perfect constructions

• Adding to after central modal verbs

• Double modal errors in standard English

• Incorrect modal use for probability, obligation, and permission

6. Article Errors

• Omission of indefinite articles

• Omission of definite articles

• Unnecessary article insertion

• Confusion between a and an

• Incorrect use of the

• Incorrect zero article

• Articles before professions

• Articles before geographical names

• Articles before abstract nouns

• Articles before uncountable nouns

• Articles with singular countable nouns

• Article errors in fixed expressions

7. Noun Errors

• Singular and plural noun confusion

• Regular plural formation errors

• Irregular plural formation errors

• Countable and uncountable noun confusion

• Incorrect possessive forms

• Double possessive errors

• Incorrect compound noun plurals

• Collective noun errors

• Incorrect noun gender references

• Confusion between nouns and other word classes

• Incorrect noun complements

• Errors with nouns used attributively

8. Pronoun Errors

• Subject and object pronoun confusion

• Incorrect possessive pronouns

• Reflexive pronoun misuse

• Intensive pronoun misuse

• Relative pronoun errors

• Demonstrative pronoun errors

• Indefinite pronoun errors

• Reciprocal pronoun errors

• Incorrect pronoun agreement

• Ambiguous pronoun references

• Unclear antecedents

• Unnecessary pronoun repetition

• Incorrect use of who and whom

• Incorrect use of its and it's

9. Adjective Errors

• Incorrect adjective placement

• Incorrect adjective order

• Confusion between adjectives and adverbs

• Incorrect comparative forms

• Incorrect superlative forms

• Double comparatives

• Double superlatives

• Incorrect adjective complements

• Incorrect participial adjectives

• Confusion between -ed and -ing adjectives

• Incorrect adjective use after linking verbs

• Errors with gradable and non-gradable adjectives

10. Adverb Errors

• Incorrect adverb placement

• Incorrect adverb formation

• Confusion between adjectives and adverbs

• Misuse of frequency adverbs

• Misuse of degree adverbs

• Misuse of manner adverbs

• Misuse of time adverbs

• Misuse of place adverbs

• Incorrect comparative adverbs

• Incorrect superlative adverbs

• Misplaced only, almost, and even

• Confusion between hard and hardly

• Confusion between late and lately

11. Preposition Errors

• Incorrect preposition selection

• Missing prepositions

• Unnecessary prepositions

• Incorrect prepositions of time

• Incorrect prepositions of place

• Incorrect prepositions of direction

• Incorrect prepositions after verbs

• Incorrect prepositions after adjectives

• Incorrect prepositions after nouns

• Confusion between in, on, and at

• Confusion between between and among

• Confusion between since and for

• Confusion between by and until

• Errors with prepositional phrases

• Errors with prepositional idioms

12. Conjunction Errors

• Incorrect coordinating conjunctions

• Incorrect subordinating conjunctions

• Incorrect correlative conjunctions

• Misuse of and, but, and or

• Confusion between because and because of

• Confusion between although and despite

• Redundant conjunctions

• Incorrect conjunction placement

• Errors with either...or

• Errors with neither...nor

• Errors with not only...but also

• Incomplete subordinate clauses

• Errors in logical relationships between clauses

13. Determiner Errors

• Incorrect demonstrative determiners

• Incorrect possessive determiners

• Incorrect distributive determiners

• Incorrect interrogative determiners

• Incorrect quantifying determiners

• Confusion between this and these

• Confusion between that and those

• Confusion between each and every

• Confusion between either and neither

• Incorrect determiner order

• Unnecessary combinations of determiners

14. Quantifier Errors

• Incorrect use of much and many

• Incorrect use of few and little

• Incorrect use of a few and a little

• Incorrect use of some and any

• Incorrect use of all and whole

• Incorrect use of each and every

• Incorrect use of both and either

• Incorrect use of less and fewer

• Incorrect use of number and amount

• Incorrect use of enough

• Incorrect use of too much and too many

• Quantifier–noun agreement errors

15. Sentence Structure Errors

• Sentence fragments

• Run-on sentences

• Comma splices

• Fused sentences

• Incomplete independent clauses

• Incorrect clause combinations

• Missing sentence elements

• Incorrect subject–predicate structures

• Faulty coordination

• Faulty subordination

• Overloaded sentences

• Awkward sentence construction

• Unclear sentence boundaries

16. Word Order Errors

• Incorrect subject–verb–object order

• Incorrect adjective–noun order

• Incorrect adverb placement

• Incorrect auxiliary verb placement

• Incorrect question word order

• Incorrect negative sentence order

• Incorrect indirect question order

• Incorrect word order after only

• Incorrect inversion

• Misplaced sentence modifiers

• Incorrect placement of time and place expressions

• Word order errors in subordinate clauses

17. Clause Errors

• Incorrect independent clauses

• Incorrect dependent clauses

• Incorrect noun clauses

• Incorrect adjective clauses

• Incorrect adverbial clauses

• Incorrect relative clauses

• Incorrect conditional clauses

• Incorrect complement clauses

• Incorrect reduced clauses

• Missing relative pronouns where required

• Incorrect relative pronoun choice

• Incorrect clause connectors

• Faulty clause coordination and subordination

18. Phrase Errors

• Incorrect noun phrases

• Incorrect verb phrases

• Incorrect adjective phrases

• Incorrect adverb phrases

• Incorrect prepositional phrases

• Incorrect infinitive phrases

• Incorrect gerund phrases

• Incorrect participial phrases

• Incorrect appositive phrases

• Incorrect absolute constructions

• Incomplete phrase constructions

• Misplaced phrases

19. Gerund and Infinitive Errors

• Incorrect gerund after prepositions

• Incorrect infinitive after verbs

• Incorrect gerund after verbs

• Confusion between gerunds and infinitives

• Incorrect bare infinitive

• Incorrect to-infinitive

• Incorrect gerund subjects

• Incorrect infinitive complements

• Errors with stop, remember, forget, and try

• Errors with make, let, and help

• Incorrect passive gerunds

• Incorrect perfect infinitives

• Incorrect perfect gerunds

20. Participle Errors

• Incorrect present participles

• Incorrect past participles

• Incorrect perfect participles

• Dangling participles

• Misplaced participial phrases

• Incorrect participial clauses

• Confusion between participles and finite verbs

• Incorrect passive participles

• Incorrect participles after perception verbs

• Incorrect participial modifiers

21. Active and Passive Voice Errors

• Incorrect active-to-passive transformations

• Incorrect passive-to-active transformations

• Missing auxiliary verbs in passive voice

• Incorrect past participles

• Incorrect passive tense forms

• Incorrect passive constructions with modals

• Incorrect agent phrases

• Unnecessary passive constructions

• Incorrect passive forms of ditransitive verbs

• Incorrect causative passive constructions

• Confusion between passive voice and adjectival participles

• Passive voice errors in reporting structures

22. Direct and Indirect Speech Errors

• Incorrect reported speech tense shifts

• Incorrect pronoun changes

• Incorrect time-expression changes

• Incorrect place-expression changes

• Incorrect reporting verbs

• Incorrect reported questions

• Incorrect reported commands

• Incorrect reported requests

• Incorrect reported suggestions

• Incorrect word order in indirect speech

• Unnecessary backshifting

• Incorrect reporting of general truths

• Errors with say and tell

23. Conditional Sentence Errors

• Incorrect zero conditional

• Incorrect first conditional

• Incorrect second conditional

• Incorrect third conditional

• Incorrect mixed conditionals

• Incorrect tense selection in conditional clauses

• Incorrect modal use in conditional clauses

• Incorrect conditional inversion

• Confusion between if and unless

• Incorrect use of provided that

• Incorrect use of as long as

• Incorrect hypothetical constructions

• Errors with wish and if only

24. Question Formation Errors

• Incorrect yes/no questions

• Incorrect WH-questions

• Incorrect auxiliary inversion

• Incorrect subject questions

• Incorrect object questions

• Incorrect tag questions

• Incorrect negative questions

• Incorrect indirect questions

• Incorrect embedded questions

• Incorrect alternative questions

• Incorrect question words

• Double auxiliary errors

• Incorrect question formation without do-support

25. Negation Errors

• Incorrect use of not

• Incorrect use of no

• Incorrect use of never

• Incorrect use of nothing and nobody

• Double negatives in standard English

• Incorrect negative word order

• Incorrect negative auxiliary constructions

• Incorrect negative questions

• Incorrect negative prefixes

• Confusion between neither and either

• Incorrect scope of negation

• Errors involving partial negation

26. Comparison Errors

• Incorrect comparative degrees

• Incorrect superlative degrees

• Double comparison errors

• Incorrect comparison structures

• Faulty comparisons

• Illogical comparisons

• Incomplete comparisons

• Incorrect use of than

• Incorrect use of as...as

• Incorrect use of more and most

• Incorrect use of less and least

• Incorrect use of like and as

• Incorrect comparative reference groups

27. Parallel Structure Errors

• Nonparallel words

• Nonparallel phrases

• Nonparallel clauses

• Incorrect parallel verb forms

• Incorrect parallel noun forms

• Incorrect parallel adjective forms

• Incorrect parallel gerunds

• Incorrect parallel infinitives

• Errors in lists and series

• Errors with correlative conjunctions

• Faulty parallel comparisons

• Parallelism errors in academic writing

28. Modifier Errors

• Misplaced modifiers

• Dangling modifiers

• Squinting modifiers

• Ambiguous modifiers

• Incorrect limiting modifiers

• Incorrect restrictive modifiers

• Incorrect nonrestrictive modifiers

• Incorrect adjective modifiers

• Incorrect adverb modifiers

• Incorrect participial modifiers

• Incorrect modifying phrases

• Incorrect modifying clauses

29. Pronoun Reference and Agreement Errors

• Unclear pronoun antecedents

• Ambiguous pronoun references

• Incorrect person agreement

• Incorrect number agreement

• Incorrect gender agreement

• Pronoun reference to nonexistent antecedents

• Excessive pronoun repetition

• Incorrect relative pronoun reference

• Confusion between singular they and plural agreement

• Pronoun shifts within sentences

• Incorrect use of one, you, and we in generic statements

30. Possessive and Apostrophe Errors

• Incorrect possessive apostrophes

• Confusion between singular and plural possessives

• Incorrect possessive pronouns

• Confusion between its and it's

• Confusion between whose and who's

• Incorrect joint possession

• Incorrect separate possession

• Incorrect possessives with irregular plurals

• Incorrect possessives with compound nouns

• Incorrect apostrophe use in ordinary plurals

31. Relative Clause Errors

• Incorrect use of who

• Incorrect use of whom

• Incorrect use of whose

• Incorrect use of which

• Incorrect use of that

• Incorrect use of where

• Incorrect use of when

• Incorrect relative pronoun omission

• Incorrect defining relative clauses

• Incorrect non-defining relative clauses

• Incorrect relative clause punctuation

• Incorrect relative pronoun agreement

• Ambiguous relative clause attachment

32. Agreement and Consistency Errors

• Subject–verb agreement inconsistency

• Pronoun–antecedent disagreement

• Noun–determiner disagreement

• Number inconsistency

• Person inconsistency

• Gender reference inconsistency

• Tense inconsistency

• Point-of-view shifts

• Inconsistent sentence patterns

• Inconsistent grammatical constructions

• Incorrect agreement across complex clauses

33. Redundancy and Double Expression Errors

• Redundant words

• Redundant phrases

• Redundant prepositions

• Redundant conjunctions

• Redundant auxiliary verbs

• Unnecessary repetition

• Double subjects

• Double objects

• Double comparatives

• Double superlatives

• Redundant negative constructions

• Tautological expressions

• Repetition of equivalent meanings

34. Word Choice and Lexical Errors

• Incorrect word selection

• Confusion between similar words

• Confusion between homophones

• Confusion between homonyms

• Confusion between commonly confused verbs

• Incorrect collocations

• Incorrect phrasal verbs

• Incorrect idiomatic expressions

• Incorrect formal and informal word choice

• Confusion between affect and effect

• Confusion between accept and except

• Confusion between lie and lay

• Confusion between rise and raise

• Confusion between borrow and lend

• Confusion between make and do

• Incorrect word-class selection

35. Phrasal Verb and Idiom Errors

• Incorrect verb–particle combinations

• Incorrect phrasal verb meanings

• Incorrect particle placement

• Incorrect separable phrasal verbs

• Incorrect inseparable phrasal verbs

• Incorrect transitive phrasal verbs

• Incorrect intransitive phrasal verbs

• Incorrect prepositional verbs

• Incorrect three-word phrasal verbs

• Incorrect idiomatic prepositions

• Literal interpretation of idiomatic expressions

• Incorrect fixed grammatical patterns

36. Causative Construction Errors

• Incorrect use of make

• Incorrect use of let

• Incorrect use of have

• Incorrect use of get

• Incorrect use of help

• Incorrect causative infinitives

• Incorrect causative participles

• Incorrect causative objects

• Incorrect active causatives

• Incorrect passive causatives

• Confusion between have something done and get something done

37. Punctuation and Grammar-Related Errors

• Comma splice errors

• Missing commas in clauses

• Incorrect comma placement

• Incorrect semicolon use

• Incorrect colon use

• Incorrect apostrophe use

• Incorrect quotation mark placement

• Incorrect punctuation in direct speech

• Incorrect punctuation in relative clauses

• Incorrect punctuation in compound sentences

• Incorrect punctuation in complex sentences

• Incorrect punctuation with introductory phrases

• Incorrect punctuation with parenthetical expressions

• Incorrect sentence-ending punctuation

38. Capitalization and Orthographic Errors

• Incorrect capitalization at sentence beginnings

• Incorrect capitalization of proper nouns

• Incorrect capitalization of proper adjectives

• Incorrect capitalization of titles

• Incorrect capitalization of nationalities and languages

• Incorrect capitalization of academic subjects

• Incorrect capitalization of days and months

• Incorrect capitalization of geographical names

• Incorrect capitalization in quotations

• Incorrect hyphenation

• Incorrect compound-word spelling

• Confusion between contractions and possessives

• Inconsistent American and British spelling conventions

39. Formal and Academic Grammar Errors

• Informal constructions in formal writing

• Inappropriate contractions in formal contexts

• Incorrect academic sentence structures

• Incorrect nominalization

• Incorrect hedging expressions

• Incorrect reporting verbs

• Incorrect citation signal phrases

• Incorrect tense use in literature reviews

• Incorrect tense use in research methodology

• Inconsistent tense in results and discussion sections

• Incorrect passive constructions in scientific writing

• Faulty parallelism in research papers

• Incorrect grammatical cohesion

• Inconsistent grammatical register

• Incorrect use of linking expressions

40. Error Identification and Sentence Correction

• Identifying subject–verb agreement errors

• Identifying tense errors

• Identifying verb form errors

• Identifying article errors

• Identifying preposition errors

• Identifying pronoun errors

• Identifying modifier errors

• Identifying parallelism errors

• Identifying faulty comparisons

• Identifying sentence fragments

• Identifying run-on sentences

• Identifying punctuation errors

• Identifying redundant expressions

• Identifying incorrect word choices

• Correcting individual grammatical errors

• Correcting sentences with multiple errors

• Sentence rewriting without changing meaning

• Editing paragraphs for grammatical accuracy

• Proofreading academic writing

• Standardized-test sentence correction practice

Summary of the Syllabus

Major topics: 40

Subtopics: 450+

Covers grammar, usage, sentence structure, academic writing, editing, and error correction from foundational to advanced levels.

Recommended study sequence: Begin with subject–verb agreement, verb tenses, articles, nouns, pronouns, and prepositions. Then study sentence structure, clauses, modifiers, comparisons, and parallelism. Finally, focus on academic grammar, error identification, and sentence correction exercises.

Important distinction: Some items, such as informal constructions, contractions, spelling variants, and certain punctuation choices, are not inherently grammatical errors. Their acceptability depends on dialect, register, writing style, and context.