Grammar
What Grammar tests
NEB grammar items are tested in context: tense and aspect, active/passive voice, reported speech, conditionals, modals, subject-verb agreement, articles, prepositions, question tags, and word order. You must choose the form that fits the sentence's meaning, not just the rule.
Core rules
- Tense: use present perfect for past actions with present relevance; past perfect for the earlier of two past actions.
- Passive: move the object to subject position and keep the tense of be; omit the agent unless it matters.
- Reported speech: shift tense one step back when the reporting verb is past; change pronouns and time words (now → then, tomorrow → the next day).
- Conditionals: first (real future), second (unreal present), third (unreal past). Match the verb forms.
- Agreement: the verb agrees with the head noun, not the nearest noun: 'The list of items is long.'
- Modals: must = obligation, might = possibility, should = advice.
Worked example
Direct: 'I will finish the report tomorrow,' she said. Reported: She said that she would finish the report the next day. Reasoning: Reporting verb said is past, so will shifts to would; tomorrow shifts to the next day; pronoun I shifts to she.
Traps that cost marks
- 'The number of students are rising' - head noun is number, so is.
- 'Since 2020, he worked here' - use has worked for an action continuing to now.
- 'If I would have known' - use had known in the third conditional.
- Forgetting to change time and place words in reported speech.