English Language and Comprehension: Grammar, Vocabulary and Register
This SOF IEO domain rewards spotting the one grammatical or idiomatic option among near-misses: sentence completion and reordering, error spotting, and short passages testing word order, conditionals, modals, collocations, phrasal verbs, idioms and register.
Word order
Declaratives run subject–verb–object–manner–place–time. Frequency adverbs precede the main verb but follow be: she often works late; he is always late. A fronted negative adverbial forces inversion: Never have I seen such rain; No sooner had he left than it poured. Adjectives order opinion–size–age–colour–origin–material.
Conditionals
Zero: present + present (if you heat ice, it melts). First: present + will (if it rains, we cancel). Second: past + would for unreal present (if I were you, I would apologise). Third: past perfect + would have (had she studied, she would have passed). Unless = if not; would never enters the if-clause.
Modals
Can/could ability and permission, may/might possibility, must obligation or near-certain deduction, should advice, needn't no necessity. Mustn't forbids; don't have to merely releases. Perfect modals look back: must have left (certainty), should have called (regret), needn't have paid (paid, unnecessarily).
Collocations, phrasal verbs and idioms
Collocation is habit, not logic: make a decision, do the washing-up, heavy rain, strong tea. Phrasal verbs are inseparable (look after the baby) or separable, with pronouns inside (turn it down, not turn down it). Idioms resist literal reading: break the ice, once in a blue moon.
Language and people
Match register to relationship - Could you possibly…, I'm afraid… for formal or polite settings - and match each function (apologising, requesting, suggesting) to its conventional exponent.
Worked example
Not only ___ the test, but she also topped the class. (A) she passed (B) did she pass (C) she did pass (D) passed she. B. Not only is a fronted negative adverbial, so the auxiliary precedes the subject as in a question, and the main verb stays bare after did. A and C keep statement order; D inverts the wrong verb.
Traps that cost marks
If I would have known - use the past perfect instead. Hardly… when, never than. Separable phrasal verbs must split around pronouns. Mustn't confused with don't have to. Idioms decoded word by word.