English Language
What this section tests
English Language carries reading comprehension (usually two or three passages), cloze test, error detection, sentence improvement, para jumbles, fillers (single and double), idiom/phrase replacement and synonym-antonym questions. The paper rewards grammar rules applied mechanically more than vocabulary breadth.
Core rules
- Subject-verb agreement: "The number of branches has increased" (singular) but "A number of branches have increased" (plural). "One of the + plural noun + singular verb."
- Correlatives: hardly...when, no sooner...than, scarcely...when, not only...but also, neither...nor (verb agrees with the nearer subject).
- Para jumbles: find the opener (a sentence with no pronoun or back-reference), then lock mandatory pairs - pronoun-antecedent, chronology, contrast - before trying the full order.
- Reading comprehension: every answer must be traceable to a line in the passage; the passage's scope beats your general knowledge.
Worked example
"Neither of the two proposals were accepted by the committee." "Neither" is singular, so the verb must be singular: "Neither of the two proposals was accepted by the committee." The same rule governs "either of", "each of" and "everyone of".
Traps
- "No sooner...then" and "hardly...than" swapped - a standard trap in sentence improvement.
- Dangling modifiers: the subject of the opening participle must perform the action ("Walking down the road, I saw the bank", not "the bank was seen by me").
- Changing a part of the sentence that is already grammatical; the error usually sits in the preposition, article or verb form.
- Choosing RC options with extreme words (always, never, only) or with ideas not stated in the passage.