English Language and Grammar: Rules That Recur in Every Paper
The English section of the Kharidar aptitude paper tests grammar in use, vocabulary and short comprehension. Errors are usually built around a small set of rules, so mastering those rules earns more marks than reading broadly.
Core rules
- Subject–verb agreement: 'one of + plural noun' takes a singular verb; each, every, either, neither and 'the number of' are singular; 'a number of' is plural.
- Tense: since and for take the present perfect; 'by the time' clauses take the past perfect; first conditional is if + present simple, will + verb.
- Articles: a or an depends on sound, not spelling - an hour, a university. 'The' is used for unique things, rivers, mountain ranges and superlatives.
- Prepositions: good at, married to, prefer X to Y, consist of, capable of, senior to.
- Passive voice: the object becomes the subject, the verb becomes be + past participle, and only transitive verbs can be passive.
- Reported speech: shift the tense back one step and change pronouns and time markers.
Worked example
Neither of the two candidates ___ eligible. Reasoning: the subject is 'neither', a singular indefinite pronoun. 'Of the two candidates' is only a prepositional phrase and does not change the number of the subject, so the verb must be singular: 'is'. The nearby plural 'candidates' is the deliberate distraction.
Traps that cost marks
- 'One of my friends lives in Pokhara' - not 'live'.
- 'He is senior to me', never 'senior than me'.
- Answering idiom questions from the literal meaning; learn them in sentences.
- Spelling slips in accommodation, occurrence, commitment, millennium and separate, which are frequent in objective spelling items.