Grammar, Syntax, and Vocabulary in Context
Grammar, syntax, and vocabulary in context
Hokkaido's grammar items are context-bound: 空所補充 (four options that may all be grammatical in isolation), 語句整序 (reorder chunks), and 語彙選択 where the deciding factor is collocation or transitivity, not the Japanese translation.
Rules that decide most items
- Verb pattern first: refuse/decline/hope + to do; deny/enjoy/avoid + -ing; suggest that … (should) do; prevent X from doing.
- Transitivity and prepositions: discuss the plan (no about), reach the station, arrive at/in, consist of, result in (cause) vs result from (be caused by), be responsible for.
- Tense and conditionals: no will in an if-clause; if + past, would do; wish + past perfect for past regrets.
- Participles: the understood subject of a participle clause is the main clause subject - 「Walking home, the bag was stolen」 is wrong.
- Comparisons: no more than (= only), not more than (= at most), the more …, the more ….
- Vocabulary in context: address a problem, raise a question, affect vs effect, rise vs raise, economic vs economical.
Worked example
「The committee ___ the proposal after a long debate.」 Options: refused / denied / declined / rejected. Decision path: all four can mean 断る in Japanese, so grammar decides. Refuse and decline take to do rather than a plain noun object in this sense; deny takes -ing or that; reject takes a noun object directly. Meaning check: a committee formally rejects a proposal, which fits the register → rejected.
Traps
- Choosing by Japanese meaning alone; 語法 errors are invisible in translation.
- Missing a required preposition (depend on, be aware of, apply for).
- Ignoring singular/plural agreement when the subject is long.
- In 整序, starting from the first word instead of anchoring a fixed phrase (as a result of, be likely to, not only … but also).