English Language and Grammar
English Language and Grammar tests sentence-level control: subject–verb agreement, tense, articles, prepositions, voice, narration, and common usage. The section is scored on standard written English, not conversational style.
Core rules
- Subject–verb agreement: a singular subject takes a singular verb; "one of + plural noun" takes a singular verb; each/every/either/neither is singular.
- Correlative conjunctions: with "neither … nor" and "either … or", the verb agrees with the nearer subject.
- Tense: keep time markers consistent; use present perfect for a past action with present relevance.
- Articles: "a/an" for indefinite count nouns; "the" for specified or unique nouns.
Worked example
"Neither the teacher nor the students ___ present." The nearer subject is "students" (plural), so the verb is "were": Neither the teacher nor the students were present. Reason: the nor/or proximity rule overrides the first subject.
Traps
- Writing "was" because "teacher" is singular.
- Using "one of the boys are" instead of "is".
- Mixing "since" with simple past ("since 2020 he worked") when present perfect is needed.
- Treating uncountables like information, furniture, and news as plurals.