Grammar
What this domain tests
Grammar checks your control of sentence structure, not just single words. Expect items on subject-verb agreement, tense and aspect, relative clauses, infinitives and gerunds, comparatives, conditionals, conjunctions, and prepositions. Many items look easy until a phrase sits between the subject and the verb, or until two tenses both seem possible.
Core rules
- Find the true subject before choosing a verb. Phrases between the subject and verb do not change agreement.
- Match the time word to the tense: yesterday, now, since, by the time, next week.
- In relative clauses, identify whether the missing word is the subject or object.
- After prepositions and certain verbs, use a gerund: enjoy doing, look forward to doing.
- Keep parallel items in the same form: to read, to write, and to speak.
Worked example
The notebooks that Yuki bought yesterday ___ on the desk. Options: is, are, was, were. Reasoning: The subject is notebooks, plural. The relative clause that Yuki bought yesterday describes the notebooks but does not change the subject. The desk situation is present, so the correct form is are. Was and were are past, and is is singular. A test-taker who focuses on Yuki or yesterday may choose was or were, but neither agrees with notebooks.
Traps that cost marks
- Agreement errors caused by a noun next to the verb.
- Choosing a tense because it sounds natural rather than because a time signal requires it.
- Using a relative pronoun when the clause already has its subject.
- Mixing gerund and infinitive patterns after verbs such as enjoy or decide.
- Breaking parallel structure in a list.