Use of English - Nyelvhelyesség
What the use-of-English paper tests
Nyelvhelyesség checks grammar and vocabulary in context, not isolated rules. Typical tasks are multiple-choice cloze, open cloze (one word per gap), word formation, and - especially at emelt szint - sentence transformation and cohesion tasks where you choose linking words or reorder ideas.
Core rules
- Read the whole sentence or short text before the gap; context decides the form.
- For open cloze, test the gap with a grammar question: is it an article, preposition, auxiliary, relative pronoun, or conjunction?
- For word formation, identify the part of speech first, then apply the suffix and spelling rules.
- In sentence transformation, keep the meaning identical and respect the word limit and the given stem.
Worked example
'The company's ___ (DECIDE) was announced on Monday.' Reasoning: the possessive 'company's' needs a noun; the verb decide forms the noun decision. Spelling: drop the final -e of decide before -sion (decide → decision), not 'decidement' or 'decition'. If the gap were 'The committee ___ (DECIDE) yesterday', the same root would need the past tense 'decided'.
Traps that cost marks
- Putting an adjective where a noun is needed, or forgetting plural -s.
- Ignoring fixed collocations: depend on, interested in, look forward to, responsible for.
- Using 'to' after a modal or after 'make/let'.
- Changing the meaning in sentence transformation (e.g., active to passive while dropping the agent).
- Misspelling suffixed forms: happy → happiness, true → truth, succeed → success.
- Forgetting that open cloze usually allows only one word.