English Language
English Language in the Patwari exam checks functional grammar, vocabulary, comprehension and sentence construction rather than literary criticism. Expect error spotting, fill-in-the-blanks, synonyms and antonyms, idioms, sentence improvement, para jumbles and a short reading passage.
Core grammar
Agreement, tense, articles, prepositions and pronouns carry most marks. A verb agrees with its real subject, not with a noun in a prepositional phrase. "One of the + plural noun" takes a singular verb. "The number of" takes a singular verb, while "a number of" takes a plural verb. Use "since" with a point of time and "for" with a duration. In conditionals, do not mix "if I was" with a hypothetical unreal present; use "if I were".
Vocabulary and comprehension
Learn words in families: affect (verb) versus effect (noun); principal (head/main) versus principle (rule). In comprehension, answer from the passage, not from outside knowledge. For para jumbles, find the opening sentence and pronoun links.
Worked example
"One of the boys ___ absent." Options: was/were. The subject is "one", singular; "of the boys" is a prepositional phrase. Therefore "was" is correct. The same logic makes "The number of applicants has risen" correct, but "A number of applicants have risen".
Traps
Do not match the verb to the nearest noun; do not ignore singular/plural in "each, every, either, neither"; do not choose a synonym by sound alone; and in para jumbles, do not start with a sentence containing "this" or "therefore" unless its referent is already clear.