English Language and Comprehension
What this domain tests
Grammar and usage, vocabulary, error spotting, sentence improvement, para-jumbles, cloze passages and a reading comprehension passage. Court drafting uses formal English, so the paper favours precision over literary style.
Rules worth revising
- Subject–verb agreement follows the grammatical subject, not the nearest noun: 'One of the clerks has submitted the file.'
- Collective nouns take a singular verb when the body acts as a unit ('The committee has decided'), plural when members act separately.
- Use 'since' with a point of time and 'for' with a duration.
- In reported speech, shift tense back one step and adjust time and place words.
- Vocabulary: 'to make both ends meet' means to live within one's means; 'ultra vires' means beyond one's legal power.
Worked example
Spot the error: 'Neither the inspector nor the constables was present.' Rule: with neither...nor the verb agrees with the nearer subject, 'constables', which is plural. So 'was present' becomes 'were present'.
Traps that cost marks
- 'One of the + plural noun + singular verb' is already correct; do not 'fix' it.
- Each, every and either are singular: 'Each of the files is indexed.'
- In comprehension, an option may be factually true yet wrong because the passage does not state it; answers must be text-supported.
- In para-jumbles, find the opening sentence first (usually a general statement without pronouns), then link with pronouns and connectors.
- Avoid over-correcting sentences that contain no error; some items genuinely have 'No error'.