English Language and Comprehension
English Language and Comprehension tests grammar control, vocabulary in context, reading accuracy and sentence structure. Typical items include error detection, sentence correction, fillers, cloze, para jumbles, synonyms and antonyms, and reading comprehension.
Core rules
- Subject-verb agreement: the verb agrees with the subject, not with an intervening phrase. With “either…or” and “neither…nor”, the verb agrees with the nearer subject.
- Modifiers must sit next to the word they describe; a dangling modifier mislabels the doer.
- Parallelism: items in a list or comparison must share grammatical form.
- Reading comprehension: distinguish stated fact from inference; the answer must be supported by the passage, not by general knowledge.
- Para jumbles: locate the opening sentence, then follow pronouns, connectors and chronological markers.
Worked example
“Neither the manager nor the clerks ___ available.”
The compound subject uses “neither…nor”. The verb agrees with the nearer subject, “clerks”, which is plural, so the correct form is “were”: “Neither the manager nor the clerks were available.” Choosing “was” because “manager” is singular ignores the nearer-subject rule.
Traps
- “One of the officers who was…” - the relative pronoun “who” refers to “officers”, so use “were”.
- Collective nouns take a singular verb when acting as one unit, but a plural verb when members act separately.
- “Since” marks a point in time; “for” marks duration.
- Confusing “affect” (verb) with “effect” (noun), and “principal” with “principle”.