English Language and Literature
Core concepts
Grammar coverage: subject–verb agreement, tense sequence, conditionals, articles, prepositions, and transformation (voice, narration, degree). Vocabulary: synonyms, antonyms, idioms, and one-word substitutions. Literature needs period awareness - Renaissance drama (Shakespeare, Marlowe), Romantic poets (Wordsworth, Coleridge, Keats), Victorian novelists (Dickens, Hardy), and modern writers (Yeats, Eliot, Orwell).
Traps to expect
- Collective nouns and proximity rules: "Neither the teacher nor the students were present" - the verb agrees with the nearer subject.
- Conditional traps: "If I were you" (subjunctive) versus "If I was" in informal speech; exams expect the subjunctive.
- Narration shifts: "He said, 'I am busy'" becomes "He said that he was busy" - tense backshift plus pronoun change.
- False friends in idioms: "To bite the bullet" means to endure pain, not to be aggressive.
- Author–work mismatches: "Pride and Prejudice" is Austen; "Paradise Lost" is Milton - a common distractor pair.
Rule of thumb
For voice change: identify object → make it subject → use correct form of be + past participle → add "by + agent" only if the agent matters. For narration: shift tense back one step unless reporting a universal truth.
Worked example
Active: "They have completed the project." Object "the project" becomes subject; present perfect "have completed" becomes "has been completed" (project is singular). Result: "The project has been completed (by them)." Note the auxiliary changes number to match the new subject - a frequent trap.