General English
General English in the Gauhati High Court JAA examination checks whether a candidate can read, correct, and produce clear administrative English. Questions typically cover grammar, vocabulary, sentence correction, synonyms and antonyms, idioms, spelling, cloze passages, and comprehension of short official-style passages.
Core rules
- Subject–verb agreement: a singular subject takes a singular verb; intervening phrases do not change the subject.
- Tense consistency: keep the main tense stable unless the sentence marks a genuine time shift.
- Prepositions and articles: learn fixed combinations such as “responsible for”, “comply with”, “a unique”, “an honest”.
- Voice and narration: change the auxiliary and pronoun accurately when converting active to passive or direct to indirect speech.
- Comprehension: answer only from the passage; do not import outside facts.
Worked example
Sentence: “The number of applicants have increased this year.” Reasoning: the subject is “the number”, which is singular; “of applicants” is a prepositional phrase, not the subject. The verb must be “has”. Correct sentence: “The number of applicants has increased this year.” Do not be misled by the plural noun nearest the verb.
Traps that cost marks
“One of the + plural noun” takes a singular verb. “Neither…nor” and “either…or” agree with the nearer subject. Do not confuse “affect” (verb) with “effect” (noun). In comprehension, options that are true in general but absent from the passage are wrong.