Language Use: Grammar, Vocabulary, Punctuation and Spelling
Accuracy areas that carry marks
Examiners reward control, not decoration. The high-value targets are tense consistency, subject-verb agreement, articles, prepositions, word forms (noun/adjective/adverb), direct and indirect speech, and conditionals.
Agreement and tense
- The verb agrees with the head noun, not the nearest noun: 'The box of chocolates was empty.'
- With 'neither...nor', the verb agrees with the nearer subject: 'Neither the teachers nor the principal was told.'
- Keep one tense in a narrative unless the meaning demands a shift.
Punctuation that is actually tested
- Apostrophes: possession ('the learner's book', 'the learners' books') and contractions ('it's' = it is). 'Its' is possessive; plural nouns never take an apostrophe ('three CDs').
- A comma cannot join two full sentences. Use a full stop, semicolon or conjunction: 'The bell rang**;** the learners left.'
- Direct speech: 'Sit down,' she said. Indirect: She told us to sit down.
Worked example
Incorrect: 'Neither the teachers nor the principal were aware of the changes, however the students was.'
Reasoning: (1) 'nor the principal' is nearer, so use was; (2) 'however' cannot join two sentences with a comma, so use a semicolon; (3) 'students' is plural, so were. Corrected: 'Neither the teachers nor the principal was aware of the changes; the students, however, were.'
Spelling and vocabulary
Learn homophone pairs in context: their/there/they're, affect/effect, loose/lose, quiet/quite, advice/advise. Check doubled consonants in 'beginning', 'occurred', 'necessary'. Keep one variety of English throughout: colour, centre, organise, practise (verb) but practice (noun).
Traps that cost marks
- Apostrophes on ordinary plurals.
- A verb agreeing with the noun nearest to it rather than the subject.
- Mixing past and present in the same narrative.
- Joining sentences with 'however' and a comma.