Grammar and Vocabulary in Context (文法・語彙)
This section tests grammar inside sentences and short passages rather than in isolated rules. Typical task types are 適語選択 (choose the correct word), 語形変化 (change the form), 語順整序 (put words in order) and 誤文訂正 (find the error). The items come from the junior high curriculum: tense and aspect, passive voice, present perfect, relative pronouns, comparatives, infinitives and gerunds, participles, indirect questions and modal verbs.
High-frequency items
- Present perfect: have/has + past participle with since, for, already, yet, ever.
- Passive: be + past participle (+ by).
- Relative pronouns: who for people, which for things, that for both, whose + noun.
- Comparatives: as ~ as, -er than, the -est, better/best.
- Infinitive and gerund: want to do, enjoy doing, stop doing versus stop to do.
- Indirect question: 疑問詞 + subject + verb, as in Do you know where he lives?
- Participles: the boy running, the book written in English.
Method
- Find the main subject and verb before anything else.
- Look for time signals: yesterday, since, for, tomorrow, every day.
- For word-order items, build from the verb pattern, for example give + person + thing or tell + person + to do.
- For blank passages, read the sentence before and after the blank.
Worked example
This is the camera ( ) my father bought in Osaka last year. Options: who / which / whose / where. Reasoning: the antecedent camera is a thing, so who is out. The clause my father bought ___ needs an object, so the relative pronoun is object case: which (or that). Whose needs a noun after it; where would replace a place adverb, but the clause already has a complete object gap. Answer: which.
Traps that cost marks
- Using where when the relative clause already has a complete object.
- Present perfect with a finished past time: I have visited Kyoto yesterday.
- enjoy to read instead of enjoy reading.
- Subject–verb agreement after a relative pronoun.
- Indirect question word order: Do you know where does he live?