English - Grammar Accuracy and Vocabulary Precision
What the paper tests
English is the smallest section but the easiest to secure fully. It checks formal written English rather than literature: subject–verb agreement, articles, prepositions, tense and aspect, conditionals, reported speech, voice, parallelism and modifier placement, plus vocabulary items such as synonyms, antonyms, idioms and one-word substitutions, and a short reading-comprehension passage. The items are short; the marks come from recognising standard usage instantly.
Core rules
- Subject–verb agreement: the verb agrees with the head noun, not with an intervening phrase. The list of items is long. Indefinite pronouns (everyone, each, neither, either) take singular verbs.
- Articles: a/an for countable singular nouns introduced first; the for something already specified or unique; no article for uncountable nouns used generally.
- Tense sequence: keep past perfect for the earlier of two past actions - He had left before I arrived.
- Conditionals: If + present, will (real); If + past, would (unreal present); If + had + past participle, would have (unreal past).
- Parallelism: items joined by and, or, not only … but also must share the same grammatical form.
- Modifiers: a participial phrase must attach to the noun it describes.
Worked example
Neither of the two candidates ___ submitted the form. The subject is neither, which is singular, and of the two candidates is only a prepositional phrase attached to it. The verb must therefore be has, not have: "Neither of the two candidates has submitted the form." The same logic makes One of the students is absent correct.
Traps that cost marks
- Plural nouns next to the verb pulling it into the plural: The quality of the samples was (not were) poor.
- Dangling participles: Walking down the road, the tower was visible is wrong because the tower was not walking.
- Confusing affect/effect, principal/principle, complement/compliment, lie/lay.
- Changing tense midway through a sentence or paragraph.
- Idioms with fixed prepositions: comprise takes no of; consist of and composed of do.