DSSSB Pharmacist: English Language & Comprehension for DSSSB Pharmacist

English Language & Comprehension contributes 20 Tier-I questions. It tests grammar, vocabulary and reading comprehension: error spotting, sentence improvement, fill in the blanks, synonyms and antonyms, one-word substitution, idioms, spelling, cloze test, para jumbles and an unseen passage. The questions are standard competitive-exam level, so command of a few repeated rules matters more than rare vocabulary.

Grammar rules that repeat

In subject-verb agreement, 'one of + plural noun' takes a singular verb; 'each', 'every', 'either' and 'neither' are singular; a collective noun is singular when it acts as one unit. Use 'a' before a consonant sound and 'an' before a vowel sound: an hour, a university. Use 'since' with a point of time and 'for' with duration; 'between' for two and 'among' for more than two. Present perfect goes with since/for; past perfect marks the earlier of two past actions. A modifier must sit next to the word it modifies.

Vocabulary and idioms

Learn word pairs that are commonly confused: affect/effect, principal/principle, complement/compliment. Idioms are figurative: 'to bite the bullet' means to endure a difficult situation; 'once in a blue moon' means very rarely.

Worked example

Spot the error: 'One of the boys were absent.' The subject is 'one', which is singular; 'of the boys' is a prepositional phrase and does not change the verb. Therefore 'were' should be 'was': 'One of the boys was absent.' If the sentence began 'The boys', then 'were' would be correct. This contrast is a frequent DSSSB trap.

Traps

Long phrases between subject and verb; faulty parallelism in 'not only ... but also'; 'hardly ... when' and 'no sooner ... than'; double negatives; comprehension options that are true in real life but not stated in the passage; and para jumbles where pronouns and connectors give the link.