General English
General English in this paper tests grammar accuracy, vocabulary and sentence transformation through short items rather than long composition.
Agreement and determiners
- 'One of the boys is absent' - the verb agrees with 'one'.
- 'The number of applicants is rising', but 'A number of applicants are waiting'.
- 'Each', 'every', 'either' and 'neither' take a singular verb; with 'neither ... nor' the verb agrees with the nearer subject.
Tenses and prepositions
Use the present perfect for a past action with present relevance: 'He has worked here since 2019'. 'Since' marks a point of time, 'for' a duration. Fixed pairs worth memorising: married to, congratulate on, insist on, comply with, prefer to, differ from.
Worked example
Item: 'Neither the clerk nor the officers ___ present.' Take the rule first: in 'neither ... nor' the verb follows the nearer subject. Here the nearer subject is 'officers', which is plural, so 'were' is correct. Reverse the order to 'Neither the officers nor the clerk' and 'was' becomes right. State the rule, locate the nearer noun, then choose.
Vocabulary and transformation
One-word substitutions: garrulous for a person who talks too much, oligarchy for government by the few. Passive transformation keeps the tense: 'The peon rings the bell' becomes 'The bell is rung by the peon'. In indirect speech the reporting verb pulls the tense back and pronouns shift to the reporter's viewpoint.
Traps
- Choosing 'were' simply because 'neither ... nor' sounds plural.
- Writing 'discuss about' or 'return back', both redundant.
- Shifting tense only once in reported speech, as in 'He said that he will come' instead of 'would come'.