Grammar and Sentence Structure
What this section tests
This domain checks control of tense and aspect, subject-verb agreement, articles and quantifiers, prepositions, conditionals, relative clauses, passive voice, and word order. Questions are usually sentence-completion or error-identification.
Concepts to master
- Tense sequencing: time markers (yesterday, since 2019, by the time) dictate the tense. By the time he arrived, we had finished.
- Agreement: find the true subject, ignoring interrupting phrases. The box of old letters was in the attic.
- Conditionals: first (real future), second (unreal present), third (unreal past). Mixed forms appear at intermediate level.
- Relative clauses: who for people, which for things, whose for possession; defining clauses take no commas.
- Articles: a/an for first mention, the for shared or previously mentioned referents.
Traps to watch
- Long subjects with prepositional phrases that hide the real head noun.
- Since plus present perfect versus for plus a duration.
- Reported speech backshift: "I am tired" becomes she said she was tired.
- Inversion after negative adverbials: Never have I seen...
Rule of thumb
Find the verb's subject and the time signal first. These two anchors eliminate most distractors before you even read the options. Then check whether the remaining choice fits the sentence's logic and register.