Language Knowledge (Vocabulary/Grammar): Contrastive Forms and Collocation
What the section tests
N2 Language Knowledge combines vocabulary questions - kanji reading, orthography, word formation (〜化・〜性・〜的・〜料), contextual word choice, paraphrase, and "usage" items where only one sentence uses a word correctly - with grammar questions: choosing the form, sentence ordering with a ★ slot, and grammar inside a short passage.
Expect contrastive sets rather than isolated points: 〜がち／気味／っぽい; 〜ばかりか／どころか; 〜ものの／にもかかわらず; 〜につれて／に伴って／に従って; 〜ざるを得ない／かねる／がたい; 〜わりに／にしては; 〜上で／上は; 〜つつある／ながらも. You must also control そう (appearance 降りそうだ vs hearsay 降るそうだ), the らしい／ようだ／みたいだ family, and てある vs ている.
Traps
Items are built from near-synonyms that differ in collocation, polarity, or register. Transitive/intransitive pairs (減る／減らす, 止まる／止める) appear often. In ★ ordering questions, candidates chain words by meaning instead of anchoring noun + particle pairs and leaving the predicate for last. In passage grammar, the decisive clue is usually a connective (しかし、だから、つまり) in the neighbouring sentence, not the blank itself.
Worked example
「最近、残業が多くて、少し疲れ（ ）だ。」 The answer is 気味. Rule of thumb: 気味 marks a slight, usually negative tendency in a state (疲れ気味、太り気味); がち marks frequency of an action (休みがち、遅れがち); っぽい marks a quality (忘れっぽい、子どもっぽい).