English - Grammar and Vocabulary
Grammar and Vocabulary is the discrete-item English section of Konkur. Each sentence tests one or two points of form or meaning: tense and aspect, agreement, conditionals, relative clauses, passive voice, articles, prepositions, conjunctions, and modal verbs; vocabulary items test collocation, dependent prepositions, phrasal verbs, word families, and close synonyms.
Grammar priorities
- Tense: use time markers. Past simple for a finished past time; present perfect for experience or a past action with present relevance; past perfect for the earlier of two past actions.
- Conditionals: if + present, will; if + past, would; if + had done, would have done.
- Relative clauses: defining clauses take no comma; non-defining clauses take commas and cannot use that.
- Agreement: the verb agrees with the head noun, not with a phrase between them. Neither ... nor agrees with the nearer subject.
- Inversion: after negative adverbials at the start of a sentence (Never have I seen...).
- Articles: a/an for one of many; the for shared or previously identified reference.
Vocabulary priorities
Learn words in chunks: make a decision, depend on, be capable of. For phrasal verbs, record the object pattern. For synonyms, check register and collocation, not just dictionary meaning.
Worked example
'By the time the guests arrived, the host ___ the table.' A) sets B) has set C) had set D) was setting. Answer C. 'By the time' plus 'arrived' marks a past reference point; the setting happened before it, so past perfect is required. B is present perfect and cannot anchor to a past event; D suggests the action was in progress at arrival, which 'by the time' does not support.
Traps
Translating Persian patterns word for word; missing a plural head noun; using 'since' with past simple; picking a synonym that does not collocate.