Grammar and Structure (Tense, Voice, Narration, Transformation, Clause Joining)
Grammar and Structure
This domain tests control of tense, voice, narration, transformation, and clause joining. Questions often ask you to rewrite a sentence without changing its meaning, so the grammar must change while the sense stays stable.
Core rules and concepts
- Tense: keep sequence unless a time marker demands a shift; use past perfect for the earlier of two past actions.
- Voice: move the object to subject position; use 'by' only when the agent matters; intransitive verbs such as 'sleep' have no passive.
- Narration: backshift present to past, change pronouns and time/place words, and keep the reporting verb's tone. Reported questions use statement order and no question mark.
- Transformation: simple, compound, and complex sentences must preserve sense; 'too...to' becomes 'so...that...not'; 'unless' becomes 'if...not'.
- Clause joining: use relative pronouns for adjective clauses, subordinators for adverbial clauses, and avoid comma splices.
Worked example
Direct: He said, 'I am revising the chapter now.' Indirect: He said that he was revising the chapter then. Reasoning: 'Said' is past, so 'am revising' backshifts to 'was revising'; 'I' becomes 'he'; 'now' becomes 'then'. 'That' is optional but clear. If the reporting verb were 'says', present tense would remain: He says that he is revising the chapter now.
Traps
Forgetting pronoun changes; keeping 'today' in reported speech; making a passive from an intransitive verb; changing meaning during transformation; joining two main clauses with only a comma; dropping the question mark in reported questions; leaving 'this' unchanged when it refers to something near the original speaker.