English Language - Grammar, Comprehension and Vocabulary
What is tested
The English section of MP Patwari checks applied grammar rather than literary theory: error spotting, sentence improvement, fill-in-the-blanks with prepositions and articles, synonyms and antonyms, idioms, and a short reading comprehension passage.
Core rules to revise
- Subject–verb agreement: a singular subject takes a singular verb; ‘one of + plural noun + singular verb’; ‘each, every, neither, either’ are singular; collective nouns are singular when acting as one unit.
- Tenses: present perfect for past action with present relevance; past perfect for the earlier of two past actions; no future tense after ‘if, when, unless’ in a conditional clause.
- Articles: ‘a’ before consonant sounds, ‘an’ before vowel sounds - ‘an hour’, ‘a university’.
- Prepositions: fixed pairs such as ‘differ from’, ‘comply with’, ‘capable of’, ‘deprived of’.
- Voice and narration: change the object into subject in passive; shift tense back one step in reported speech.
Vocabulary
Learn 10–15 words a day with one synonym, one antonym and one sentence. Group idioms by theme (effort, honesty, money) instead of memorising lists alphabetically.
Worked example
Spot the error: “One of my friend is a doctor.” Reasoning: after ‘one of’ the noun must be plural, and the verb agrees with ‘one’, so it stays singular. Correct sentence: “One of my friends is a doctor.”
Traps
Uncountable nouns (furniture, information, advice) take singular verbs and no plural ‘s’; do not split infinitives for style marks; in comprehension, answer from the passage even when your own knowledge suggests otherwise; ‘since’ needs a point of time, ‘for’ a duration.