Grammar and Sentence Structure: Tense, Agreement, Articles, Prepositions, Clauses
What this domain tests
Grammar items check tense choice and sequence, subject-verb agreement, articles and determiners, prepositions, and clause structure (relative, conditional, reported speech). The examiner is testing control, so the shortest correct form beats a complicated near-miss.
Core rules
- Tense: present perfect for a past action with present relevance (She has worked here since 2019); past simple with a finished time (She worked here in 2019); past perfect for the earlier of two past events.
- Agreement: the verb agrees with the subject, not with an intervening phrase (The list of items is long). With either...or and neither...nor the verb agrees with the nearer subject (Neither the principal nor the teachers were informed). One of the students who have... takes a plural verb after who, but the only one of the students who has... takes a singular.
- Articles: a and an by sound (an hour, a university); the for unique or previously mentioned things and with superlatives; no article for general plurals and abstract nouns (Books are expensive; Honesty pays).
- Prepositions: depend on, consist of, insist on, married to, similar to, in the morning but on Monday morning, at night.
- Clauses: defining relative clauses take no commas and allow that; non-defining clauses take commas and never take that. Conditionals: If I had known, I would have applied.
Worked example
Choose the correct form: Neither the manager nor the clerks ______ (was/were) available. Reasoning: neither...nor follows the proximity rule, so the verb agrees with clerks, the nearer subject. Answer: were.
Traps that cost marks
- Since versus for: since plus a starting point, for plus a duration.
- used to plus base verb (past habit) versus be used to plus -ing (be accustomed to).
- Comma splice: two finite clauses joined by only a comma.
- Dropping the article before a singular countable noun (She is teacher).
- Shifting tense without reason inside one narrative.