Grammar and Usage
What the section tests
Grammar and Usage tests your control of verb forms, sentence structure, agreement, articles, prepositions, and pronoun choice. Questions are usually multiple-choice sentences with one gap or one error to find, so accuracy on small details decides your score.
Concepts you must know
- Tense and aspect: present simple for habits, present continuous for now, past simple for finished actions, present perfect for past actions linked to now (since, for, already, yet).
- Subject–verb agreement: singular subject takes singular verb; watch phrases between subject and verb ("The box of pencils is...").
- Conditionals: If it rains, we will stay (first); If I were you... (second).
- Comparatives: better, the best, more carefully.
- Articles and prepositions: a/an/the, and fixed pairs like interested in, good at.
Traps in questions
Time words are the biggest clue and the biggest trap: yesterday forbids present perfect; since 2020 demands it. Distractors often sound right but break agreement or use the wrong preposition. Double negatives (didn't see nobody) and misplaced modifiers also appear.
Worked example
"She ___ in this school since 2021." Options: teaches / taught / has taught / is teaching. Since 2021 links past to present, so the present perfect has taught is correct. Rule of thumb: find the time expression first, then choose the tense it allows.