Hindi and English Language: Grammar, Comprehension and Vocabulary
This section tests Hindi and English language skills through grammar, comprehension, vocabulary and usage. Expect questions on संधि, समास, उपसर्ग–प्रत्यय, मुहावरे and पर्यायवाची/विलोम in Hindi, and on tense, articles, prepositions, subject–verb agreement, voice, narration, idioms and cloze passages in English. Comprehension is a scoring area because the answer stays inside the passage.
Core rules
- Hindi संधि: स्वर संधि (दीर्घ, गुण, वृद्धि, यण, अयादि), व्यंजन संधि and विसर्ग संधि. Identify the meeting vowels first, then apply the rule.
- समास: तत्पुरुष (case relation), कर्मधारय (adjective + noun), द्विगु (number), द्वंद्व (both equal), बहुव्रीहि (third meaning), अव्ययीभाव (indeclinable prefix).
- English agreement: a singular subject takes a singular verb even when a plural noun follows “one of the”.
- Vocabulary: learn idioms with their exact meaning, not word-by-word translation.
Worked example
Choose the correct verb: “One of the boys ___ absent.” The subject is “One”, not “boys”; “of the boys” is a prepositional phrase. So the verb is singular: “is”. The same logic gives “Each of the students is…” and “Neither of the answers is…”.
Traps
- In “one of the + plural noun”, a plural verb is the commonest wrong answer.
- विद्या + आलय = विद्यालय is दीर्घ संधि because आ + आ = आ; do not label it गुण संधि.
- In comprehension, do not import outside knowledge; the answer must be supported by the passage.
- Idioms cannot be decoded literally: “to bite the dust” means to fail, not to eat dust.