PSEB Matric English cheat sheet

PSEB Matric English: Grammar, Composition and Comprehension

• Tense sequencing: a past-tense main verb takes a past-tense subordinate verb ("He said that he was ill"); a present-tense main verb allows any tense in the reported clause.

• Reported speech shifts: present simple to past simple, present continuous to past continuous, present perfect to past perfect, will to would, can to could, may to might; time words shift now to then, today to that day, tomorrow to the next day, yesterday to the previous day.

• Reported questions keep statement word order and drop the question mark: "He asked me where I lived." Yes/no questions take if or whether.

• Passive voice: move the object to subject position, use be plus past participle, and add by plus the agent only when the agent matters. Present simple passive is am/is/are plus V3; past simple passive is was/were plus V3.

• Conditional types: Type 1 if plus present simple, will plus base verb; Type 2 if plus past simple, would plus base verb; Type 3 if plus past perfect, would have plus past participle.

• Subject-verb agreement traps: each, every, either, neither, everyone, somebody are singular; neither...nor and either...or agree with the nearer subject; collective nouns such as team or jury take a singular verb when acting as one unit.

• Article rules: a before consonant sounds, an before vowel sounds (an hour, a university); no article with uncountable and abstract nouns used generally, with names of languages, meals, and most countries.

• Punctuation in direct speech: the comma or reporting clause stays outside the inverted commas, the first word inside is capitalised, and the full stop or question mark goes inside the closing quotation mark.

• Composition rule: a letter, notice, or paragraph must carry one controlling idea; the opening sentence states purpose, body sentences give supporting detail, and the closing sentence rounds off without introducing new material.