English Language: Grammar, Usage, and Comprehension
Core concepts
The English component tests grammar accuracy, vocabulary in context, sentence correction, and reading comprehension. Prioritise: subject-verb agreement (including collective nouns and indefinite pronouns), tense and aspect consistency, the correct use of articles, prepositions and phrasal verbs, conditionals, reported speech, and modifiers - especially dangling and misplaced participles. Learn the difference between who and whom, which and that, fewer and less, lie and lay, and commonly confused pairs (affect/effect, principal/principle, complement/compliment).
For comprehension, practise locating the main idea, distinguishing stated fact from inference, and identifying the author's tone. Vocabulary items reward knowing roots and prefixes rather than rote lists.
Common traps
Examiners favour the interruptive phrase: in The list of items was long, the verb agrees with list, not items. Watch for neither...nor taking the nearer subject. Beware redundancy (return back, repeat again) and faulty parallelism in lists. In comprehension, an option that is true but not supported by the passage is a distractor; the correct inference must follow from the text.
Worked example
Correct Neither the students nor the teacher were present. Rule of thumb: with neither...nor, the verb agrees with the nearer subject - teacher - so the correct form is was. For a quick check on any agreement item, bracket the interrupting phrase and read the sentence without it.