Grammar and Vocabulary in Context
What this section asks
This is the "do as directed" block: tense and verb forms, voice, narration, clause joining, phrasal verbs, word formation, plus articles, prepositions and degrees of comparison. The mark is for the whole rewritten sentence being correct, not for a partial attempt.
Tense and voice
- Time markers fix the tense: since/for with present perfect, yesterday with simple past, by the time with past perfect.
- Passive = the correct form of be + past participle, keeping the original tense: "They are building a bridge" → "A bridge is being built."
- Imperatives become "Let … be + past participle": "Shut the door" → "Let the door be shut."
- Intransitive verbs (die, arrive, sleep) have no passive form.
Narration
- A past reporting verb forces a one-step backshift: am going → was going, will → would, has → had.
- Pronouns shift to the reporter's viewpoint; tomorrow → the next day, now → then, here → there, this → that.
- Command: ordered/requested/advised + to + verb. Question: asked + if/whether or wh-word, in statement order.
Joining and word formation
- Compound sentences need and/but/or/so; complex sentences need because/although/when/who/which/that.
- Noun suffixes: -ment, -tion, -ness, -ance. Adjective suffixes: -ful, -less, -ous, -ive. Negatives: un-, in-, ir-, dis-.
- Learn phrasal verbs by meaning: put up with = tolerate, give in = yield, break out = erupt, call off = cancel.
Worked example
"He said, 'I am going to Kolkata tomorrow.'" Model: He said that he was going to Kolkata the next day. Reasoning: the reporting verb is past, so am going backshifts to was going; I becomes he; tomorrow becomes the next day; "that" introduces the reported clause. Dropping any one of these four changes loses the mark.
Traps that cost marks
- Leaving "tomorrow", "here" or "this" unchanged in narration.
- Passivising an intransitive verb.
- Double comparatives and superlatives.
- Answering with a phrase when the instruction says "rewrite the sentence".