Lexical and Grammatical Competence
Lexical and Grammatical Competence checks control of grammar and vocabulary in context: tense and aspect, articles and determiners, prepositions, modal verbs, conditionals, reported speech, word formation, collocation, and phrasal verbs. Tasks are usually gap-fill or multiple choice, so the correct answer must fit both meaning and form.
Core rules
- Identify the time marker and the speaker’s viewpoint before choosing a tense.
- Check subject–verb agreement after collective nouns, inverted structures, and “each/every”.
- For articles, ask: countable? singular? specific to the listener?
- Learn prepositions inside whole phrases: “depend on”, “in charge of”, “responsible for”.
- For word formation, check the part of speech needed and whether the meaning is negative.
- For collocation, prefer the natural partner: “make a decision”, “take a risk”, “heavy rain”.
Worked example
“If she ___ the earlier train, she would have arrived on time.” A) takes B) took C) had taken D) has taken Reasoning: “would have arrived” marks a third conditional; the if-clause needs past perfect. Answer C. “Took” would fit a second conditional with “would arrive”, not the past result “would have arrived”.
Traps
- Choosing by sound rather than by grammatical function.
- False friends transferred from another language.
- Missing a negative prefix: un-, in-, dis-, mis-.
- Breaking parallel structure: “reading, writing, and to listen” → “reading, writing, and listening”.