Language (English)
Language (English) is a 25-question, 50-mark section of AISSEE, with 2 marks per question and one-third negative marking. It checks standard written English: grammar (subject-verb agreement, tenses, articles, prepositions, pronouns), vocabulary (synonyms, antonyms, spelling, one-word substitution), sentence completion and a short comprehension passage. Questions are usually direct; the difficulty lies in close options that differ by one small grammar signal.
Core rules
- Subject-verb agreement: the verb agrees with the subject, not with a phrase in between. With 'either...or' or 'neither...nor', the verb agrees with the nearer subject.
- Tense: use time markers. 'Since 2019' and 'for three years' require a perfect tense; 'yesterday' requires simple past.
- Articles: choose by sound, not spelling - 'a university', 'an hour', 'a European'.
- Prepositions: learn fixed pairs - depend on, afraid of, good at, married to, since a point in time, for a period.
- Comprehension: answer only from the passage; the main idea is not always the first sentence.
Worked example
Choose the correct verb: 'Neither the teacher nor the students ___ ready.' The subject nearest the verb is 'students' (plural), so the verb is 'are'. If the order were 'Neither the students nor the teacher', the nearer subject 'teacher' would take 'is'. This is the proximity rule, not a meaning-based choice.
Traps that cost marks
Choosing an option because it 'sounds right' when the passage uses a different word; confusing 'affect' (verb) and 'effect' (noun); using 'since' with a duration ('since three years' is wrong); and importing outside knowledge into a comprehension answer. Under negative marking, a vocabulary guess with no elimination is a losing trade.