English Language and Comprehension
English Language and Comprehension checks formal correctness and reading accuracy: error spotting, sentence improvement, fillers and cloze, synonyms and antonyms, idioms and phrases, one-word substitution, spelling, sentence rearrangement (parajumbles), and a comprehension passage.
Grammar rules that repeat every year
- 'The number of' takes a singular verb; 'a number of' takes a plural verb.
- 'One of the + plural noun' is followed by a singular verb: 'One of the officers is on duty.'
- With 'neither…nor' and 'either…or', the verb agrees with the nearer subject.
- Use 'since' with a point of time and 'for' with a duration.
- Some verbs take no preposition: comprise, discuss, resemble, reach, order. 'Comprise of' and 'discuss about' are wrong.
- Comparatives: 'superior to', 'inferior to', 'preferable to' - never 'than'.
Worked example
Spot the error: 'The number of applicants for the wireless operator post have risen sharply.' Reasoning: the subject is 'the number', which is singular, so the verb must be 'has'. Correct sentence: 'The number of applicants for the wireless operator post has risen sharply.'
Traps
Reading an idiom literally - 'to bite the bullet' means to endure a painful situation bravely, not to chew metal. Choosing a comprehension option that is factually true but absent from the passage. Missing a double comparative ('more better'). Changing the tense of an already correct sentence in 'no improvement' questions. Overlooking spelling variants such as 'maintenance' and 'occurrence'.