Language Knowledge (Grammar and Vocabulary)
Language knowledge items test grammar and vocabulary in context, not isolated memorisation. Expect fill-in-the-blank items, word-ordering (並べ替え) items, choosing the correct form of a word, and short dialogue completions. Most items come from junior high school grammar: tense, auxiliaries, infinitives and gerunds, comparatives, relative pronouns, conjunctions, prepositions, and basic collocations.
Rules that are tested again and again
- Time and condition clauses (when, if, before, after) take the present tense for future meaning: "If it rains, we'll stay home."
- Third-person singular -s and plural -s decide many answers; check the subject before choosing the verb.
- After enjoy, finish, stop, practise, mind use the -ing form; after want, hope, decide, plan use to + verb.
- Indirect questions keep statement order: "Do you know where he lives?" not "where does he live".
- Comparatives: much / a lot + comparative; as ... as; the + superlative.
Worked example
"If it ( ) tomorrow, we will cancel the picnic." Options: rain / rains / will rain / rained. The clause begins with if and refers to the future, so English uses the present simple, not will. The subject is it, so the verb needs -s: rains. Choosing will rain is the most common error, because Japanese allows a future form in this clause.
Word-ordering items
Build the sentence around the chunk that cannot be split: a preposition with its object, or a relative word with its clause. Example: "This is the park where we played tennis last Sunday." The order where + subject + verb + object + time is fixed; carrying over Japanese order (last Sunday tennis played we) is the trap.
Traps
- Translating the Japanese sentence word for word instead of using English patterns.
- Ignoring articles and prepositions, which are often the marked point.
- Forgetting verbs that take two objects: "tell me the way", not "tell the way me".