English Language
What is tested
English questions in NE POST usually cover grammar and usage, vocabulary (synonyms, antonyms, idioms), error spotting, sentence improvement and a short comprehension passage.
Core rules
- Subject-verb agreement: singular subject → singular verb. Phrases between subject and verb do not change it.
- Tense consistency: a sentence should not shift tense without a time signal.
- Articles: a/an by sound, not spelling-an hour, a university.
- Prepositions are fixed by usage: depend on, capable of, married to, prefer to.
- Parallelism: items joined by and/or must have the same grammatical form.
Worked example
Question: One of the boys ___ absent today. (is/are) Reasoning: The subject is one, not boys. "Of the boys" is a prepositional phrase and does not control the verb. One is singular, so the answer is is. If the sentence were "The boys ___ absent", the answer would be are.
Traps
- "Each", "every", "either", "neither" take singular verbs.
- Collective nouns take a singular verb when acting as one unit: The committee has decided.
- Double negatives: I don't have no money is wrong.
- Misplaced modifiers: Walking down the road, I saw a snake-not Walking down the road, a snake saw me.
- Nepali-English usages such as "discuss about" and "return back" are usually wrong in standard English.