Grammar and Language Usage (sandhi, samas, karak, verb forms, sentence transformation)
Grammar carries easy marks because the patterns are finite. Expect items on vowel joining at morpheme boundaries, compound formation, case relations, verb forms and sentence transformation (affirmative to negative, singular to plural, direct to reported speech).
Karak without case suffixes
Santhali marks case relations mainly with postpositions placed after the noun: -ke marks a definite or animate object; -re is locative ('in, at, on'); -te is instrumental or ablative ('by, with, from'); sanga is comitative ('with'); lagate is benefactive ('for'). Possession uses -ak: inak (my), amak (your), unak (his/her). Number comes before the case marker, so hor-ko-ke is 'to the men'.
Samas
Compounds are modifier plus head with the head last: Marang Buru ('Great Mountain', the supreme deity), Jaher Than (the sacred grove). To expand a compound, ask which element is the head.
Vowel joining
The exam's 'sandhi' items are modest: when a suffix meets a stem-final vowel, the vowels coalesce or one is dropped, while the suffix keeps its shape (kuri + -ko becomes kuriko). Sanskrit sandhi rules are not applied wholesale to Santhali stems.
Verb forms
The verb agrees with the subject and often with an animate object; dual and inclusive/exclusive distinctions surface here too. Negation is a suffix or particle (ban); prohibition uses ala (ala sen, 'do not go'); existence is menak, whose negative is ban.
Worked example
Transform 'Hor-ko buru-re senkeda' ('the men went to the hill') into a prohibition addressed to one person. Steps: remove the past marker -ked-; keep the stem sen; add ala. Result: 'Ala sen!' Reasoning: prohibition is tenseless, so the tense marker must disappear before ala is added.
Traps
Placing the case marker before the plural; applying Sanskrit sandhi to Santhali; translating 'by hand' with a case suffix instead of -te; forgetting the inclusive/exclusive choice; leaving the tense marker in a prohibition.