English Language and Comprehension
This section covers English Language and Comprehension as tested in the SAASS Police Academy Exam: grammar accuracy, vocabulary in context, and the ability to extract meaning from a police-related passage.
Core rules
- Subject–verb agreement: the verb agrees with the subject, not the nearest noun. "The number of..." is singular; "a number of..." is plural.
- Tense consistency: use present perfect for an action beginning in the past and continuing, or with "since/for"; use past simple for a finished past time.
- Parallelism: items joined by and/or must share grammatical form.
- Pronouns: a pronoun must have one clear antecedent; "each, either, neither, everyone" are singular.
- Comprehension: separate main idea from supporting detail; inference must be supported by the text, not by outside knowledge.
Worked example
"The number of officers who ___ trained in crowd control has risen." The blank is in the relative clause; "who" refers to "officers", so use plural "were". The main verb "has risen" agrees with "the number", singular. Candidates who match the verb to the nearest noun write "was", which is wrong twice.
Traps
- "One of the + plural noun + singular verb": "One of the constables is..." not "are".
- Treating "police" as singular: "The police are..." in standard British/Indian usage.
- Choosing a synonym by general meaning rather than the sentence's context.
- Answering comprehension from memory or opinion instead of the passage.
Build accuracy by editing short police-notice paragraphs for agreement, tense and parallel structure, then explain each correction in one sentence.