Basic English Language and Comprehension
The English paper tests accuracy rather than literary knowledge. Expect error spotting, sentence improvement, fill in the blanks with prepositions and articles, synonyms and antonyms, one-word substitutions, idioms, active–passive and direct–indirect conversion, spelling, and a short reading comprehension passage.
Rules that carry most questions
- Subject–verb agreement: "one of + plural noun" takes a singular verb; each, every, either and neither are singular; "the number of" is singular while "a number of" is plural.
- Articles follow sound, not spelling: a university, a one-rupee coin, an hour, an MLA.
- Fixed prepositions: married to, composed of, superior to, prefer X to Y, abide by, accused of, capable of.
- Tenses: "since" and "for" with present perfect or past perfect; the past perfect continuous is "had been + verb-ing".
- In comprehension, every answer must be traceable to a line in the passage.
Worked example
Spot the error: "One of my friend / is going / to Delhi / this evening." Reasoning: the phrase "one of" must be followed by a plural noun, so the first part should read "one of my friends". The verb remains singular because the subject is "one", not "friends", so "is going" is correct. Answer: the first part is wrong; rewrite as "One of my friends is going to Delhi this evening."
Traps that cost marks
- Confusing its and it's, affect and effect, principal and principle.
- Answering comprehension questions from general knowledge instead of from the printed passage.
- Choosing an idiom's literal meaning over its idiomatic meaning, such as "to let the cat out of the bag" meaning to reveal a secret.
- Ignoring the tense of the rest of the sentence when filling a blank.