English Language Proficiency: Grammar, Usage, and Vocabulary
What is tested
This domain rewards control of written standard English rather than conversational fluency. Expect items on subject–verb agreement, pronoun reference, tense and aspect consistency, parallelism, modifier placement, comparatives, prepositions in fixed expressions, and formal register.
Concepts to master
- Agreement with collective nouns (the jury, the court, the committee), indefinite pronouns (each, either, none), and correlative conjunctions (neither…nor takes the nearer subject).
- Dangling and misplaced participles: an introductory participial phrase must modify the grammatical subject of the main clause.
- Pronoun case after prepositions and in comparisons (between you and me; taller than I).
- Commonly confused pairs: affect/effect, ensure/insure/assure, imply/infer, lie/lay, less/fewer, comprise/compose.
- Legal-register vocabulary: shall, may, herein, pursuant to, hereby, forthwith; and the difference between “shall” (mandatory) and “may” (permissive).
Traps
Writers bury the subject inside long prepositional phrases (“A list of witnesses was…,” not “were”). Questions also test register: a colloquial word in a sworn affidavit, or a phrasal verb where a single formal verb is required. Another frequent trap is a sentence that is grammatically fine but shifts tense mid-clause.
Rule of thumb
Bracket every prepositional phrase, then match the remaining head noun to the verb. For vocabulary, substitute each candidate and ask whether the sentence still says exactly the same thing.
Worked example
“Neither the defendant nor his two attorneys ___ present.” The verb agrees with the nearer subject, “attorneys,” so the answer is “were,” not “was.”