check for errors

Meaning

This phrase means to review a document, codebase, spreadsheet, or report to find and correct mistakes. It is a critical step in quality control across all business sectors, ensuring that work is accurate before it is finalized or sent to clients.

Examples

• Please check for errors in the financial report before sending it to the board.

  Please check for errors in the financial report before sending it to the board.

• The editor spent three hours reading the manuscript to check for errors.

  The editor spent three hours reading the manuscript to check for errors.

• Software developers must always check for errors in their code before deployment.

  Software developers must always check for errors in their code before deployment.

• I always print out my emails to check for errors more easily.

  I always print out my emails to check for errors more easily.

• We need to check for errors in the customer database to clean up the records.

  We need to check for errors in the customer database to clean up the records.

Common Mistakes

• ✗ You must check errors in this document.

  ✓ You must check for errors in this document.

  Without 'for', 'check errors' sounds like you are verifying that the errors themselves exist. 'Check for' means to look for something that might be there.

• ✗ Please control the errors before submitting.

  ✓ Please check for errors before submitting.

  'Control' is a false friend in many languages where it means to inspect. In English, use 'check for' to find mistakes.

Related Expressions

Practice

• Always ___ ___ ___ before you print the final version of the contract.

  💡 look for mistakes

  Show answer

  check for errors

• Our quality assurance team will ___ ___ ___ in the new software update.

  💡 inspect to find bugs or faults

  Show answer

  check for errors