Grammar and Language Usage
What the domain tests
Grammar and Language Usage tests control of sentence-level accuracy: tense, subject-verb agreement, articles, prepositions, voice, reported speech, degrees of comparison, question tags, conditionals and sentence transformation. Tasks include filling blanks, correcting errors and rewriting sentences without changing meaning.
Core rules
- Find the real subject before choosing the verb; phrases between subject and verb do not control agreement.
- With 'neither ... nor' and 'either ... or', the verb agrees with the nearer subject.
- In reported speech, shift tense back, change pronouns to the speaker's viewpoint, and change time and place words.
- In passive voice, keep the original tense and use the past participle.
- In conditionals, use present tense in the if-clause for real future conditions, not 'will'.
Worked example
Sentence: 'Neither the teacher nor the students ___ ready.' Reasoning: the subjects are joined by 'nor'. The nearer subject is 'students', which is plural, so the verb is 'were'. Answer: 'Neither the teacher nor the students were ready.' Second check: 'One of the students ___ absent' takes a singular verb because the subject is 'one', not 'students': 'One of the students is absent.'
Traps that cost marks
Letting a phrase such as 'along with the teachers' change the verb; keeping quotation marks in reported speech; writing 'if he will come' instead of 'if he comes'; using 'less' with countable nouns; forgetting the auxiliary in passive questions.