English Language
English in the Iraqi literary baccalaureate tests grammar in context, reading comprehension, vocabulary, and guided writing. Questions often ask you to choose the correct tense, transform a sentence into passive or reported speech, join clauses, or complete a short paragraph. Accuracy in form matters as much as meaning. Read the whole sentence before choosing a form; one time marker can decide the tense.
Core grammar
- Present perfect: have/has + past participle; use since with a point in time and for with a duration.
- Passive: be + past participle; keep the object as subject and use by only when necessary.
- Reported speech: backshift the verb, and change pronouns, time, and place words.
- Conditionals: first (will), second (would), third (would have + past participle).
- Relative clauses: who for people, which for things, where for places; that is common in defining clauses.
Worked example
Direct: He said, 'I will visit Baghdad tomorrow.' Reported: He said that he would visit Baghdad the next day. Reasoning: will becomes would; I becomes he; tomorrow becomes the next day. The reporting verb is past, so backshift is required. If the statement is still true, backshift is optional in some contexts, but the exam usually expects the standard sequence.
Traps
- Using since with a duration ('since three years') instead of for.
- Forgetting the past participle in passive.
- Keeping 'tomorrow' in reported speech.
- Double comparatives ('more better').
- Countable/uncountable errors ('informations', 'advices').
- Misreading a question word as a yes/no question in reported speech.