Chapter 5 of 518% of exam
Spotting Usage Errors
Error-correction tasks ask you to pick the sentence that follows standard English. This chapter reviews common traps with 'despite', 'used to', reflexives, and question formation.
Prepositions and Fixed Structures
'Despite' takes a noun phrase with no 'of'. 'Be used to' meaning 'be accustomed to' is followed by the -ing form ('used to working'), which differs from the past-habit 'used to + base verb'.
Reflexives and Question Order
The standard plural reflexive is 'themselves', not 'theirselves'. In questions, the auxiliary comes before the subject: 'How long have you been waiting?'