Inglés
The English section of the Prueba Diagnóstica tests grammar in context, basic vocabulary and short reading comprehension. Most items ask you to choose the form that fits a sentence, so the key is recognizing the time marker or structural clue (since, yesterday, every day, now) and letting it select the tense, article or preposition.
Verb tenses
- Present simple for routines and facts; add -s in the third person singular (she works). Present continuous for actions happening now: am/is/are + -ing.
- Past simple for finished actions: regular -ed, irregular forms (go-went, buy-bought). Past continuous for an action interrupted by another.
- Present perfect: have/has + past participle, used with for, since, ever, never, just, already, yet. "She has worked here since 2019."
- Future: will for decisions and predictions, be going to for plans and visible evidence.
Articles, countability and agreement
- a/an depends on sound, not spelling: a university, an hour, a European country.
- Uncountable nouns take much and little, not many and few: information, advice, news, furniture, money.
- Comparatives: short adjectives take -er, long ones take more; superlatives take the -est or the most. Irregular: good-better-best, bad-worse-worst.
- Agreement: people are, everyone is, the news is, each student has.
Prepositions and false friends
- in for months, years and cities; on for days and dates; at for times and night.
- Common false friends: actually means "en realidad" (not "actualmente", which is currently); library is "biblioteca" (a bookshop is a bookstore); assist means "ayudar" (to attend is "asistir"); realize means "darse cuenta".
- Fixed combinations: depend on, married to, listen to, good at, interested in. Say "I agree", never "I am agree".
Worked example
"Maria ____ (work) at the bank ____ 2019." Options: works / since; has worked / since; worked / for; is working / for. Reasoning: "since" marks a starting point and the action continues into the present, which requires the present perfect: "has worked ... since 2019". "For" would need a duration (for five years), and the simple past would close the action, contradicting the ongoing meaning.
Traps that cost marks
- Dropping the third-person -s (she work).
- Using the present perfect with a finished time expression ("I have seen him yesterday" is wrong).
- Making uncountable nouns plural (informations, advices).
- Double auxiliary in questions: "Does she works?" should be "Does she work?".