English Language, Vocabulary and Verbal Reasoning
English Language - Grammar, Usage and Sentence Structure
What this section tests
NAT English items test control of standard written English, not literary interpretation. Expect error identification, sentence correction, preposition/article/conjunction fill-ins, sentence reordering (parajumbles), and short reading-comprehension passages.
Concepts to master
Subject–verb agreement, including inverted order and long intervening phrases; tense consistency and the sequence of tenses in reported speech; pronoun–antecedent agreement and reference; articles with countable versus uncountable nouns; prepositions and phrasal verbs; modifier placement (dangling and misplaced); and parallelism in lists and comparisons.
Traps that repeat
- The verb agrees with the head noun, not the nearest noun: The list of items is on the desk.
- One of the + plural noun takes a singular verb: One of the boys is late.
- Each, every, either, neither are singular; both, few, several are plural.
- With or/nor, the verb agrees with the nearer subject.
- Comparisons must be parallel and complete: use than that of when comparing a quality, not an object.
- Dangling participles: Walking down the road, the tower was seen is wrong - the doer must be the subject.
Rule of thumb
Strip the sentence to its subject and verb before choosing an option. If the shortened version is grammatical and the option still fits the full sentence, accept it. Most wrong options are wrong because they break this bare skeleton, not because of style.
Worked example
Neither the manager nor the clerks ___ aware of the change. The verb follows the nearer subject, clerks, so the answer is were, not was.
Vocabulary and Verbal Reasoning
What this section tests
Synonyms, antonyms, one-word substitutions, idioms and phrases, analogies, cloze/sentence-equivalence items, and odd-one-out sets. The aim is precision of meaning in context, not memorised word lists alone.
Concepts to master
Context clues - definition, contrast (but, although), cause–effect (therefore, because), and examples (such as). Connotation: positive, neutral, negative (childlike vs childish; thrifty vs stingy). Roots and affixes: bene/mal, ante/post, -cide, -logy, -phobia, a-/an-. Register: formal versus colloquial. And for analogies, the named relation types: part–whole, cause–effect, function, degree, category–member, synonym/antonym.
Traps that repeat
- Secondary meanings: pedestrian means dull, not only a walker; capital means money or a city or punishable by death.
- Near-synonyms with wrong connotation - the option fits roughly but carries the wrong tone.
- Reversed relations in analogies: whole–part offered where part–whole was given.
- Grammar traps: an option that fits the blank grammatically but not in meaning.
- Literalism: idioms are never meant literally.
Rule of thumb
For analogies, build one short sentence from the stem pair - A pen is the tool used by a writer - then apply that exact sentence to each option without editing it. If you must change the sentence to make an option fit, the option is wrong. For cloze items, predict your own word before reading the choices.
Worked example
Pen : Writer :: Scalpel : ? The relation is tool-of-a-professional. A scalpel is the tool of a surgeon. Hospital is a place, sharp is a property - both break the relation.